Which adjustments prevail; camera or flash?

[AllEx]

I believe (found out) that it's the camera’s, but I wish to have more information on the topic.

[Mike Buckley]

When referring to exposure compensation of an external flash, it depends on the camera system. I believe the flash prevails in all Canon bodies though I'm not a Canon user. The flash prevails only in newer Nikon camera bodies; on other Nikon bodies the exposure compensation of the flash is added to that of the camera. I don't know about other manufacturers.

Edit: I had been told apparently incorrectly that the flash prevailed on some new Nikon camera bodies. My post later in the thread proves that that's not true for the Nikon D800.

[rpcrowe]

Here are several Canon related articles which should answer your questions regarding the Canon Flash system.

https://www.google.com/search?q=cano...sm=93&ie=UTF-8

In a nutshell, with Canon Speedlites, it depends on the camera and flash type whether the camera or the flash itself controls the flash..

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Alexander,

It would really help us understand your query if you gave us an example, with details like which camera and flash you are talking about.

Thanks, Dave

[AllEx]

Thank you all for your answers, I own a Nikon D800 and a sppeedlight (the way Nikon calls it's flashes) SB800. I`ve noticed that whatever adjustments l apply on the flash always matter the ones I apply on the camera body.

[Mike Buckley]

From page 189 of the Nikon D800 manual:

"The SB-910, SB-900, SB-800, SB-700, and SB-600 also allow flash compensation to be set using the controls on the flash unit; the value selected with the flash unit is added to the value selected with the camera."

[AllEx]

Thank you Mike, the all thing with the addition misleaded me.

[Manfred M]

I own both the D800 and the SB-900. I find that using EC on the camera and flash tend to give me somewhat unpredictable results and I tend to go back to the old fashioned way and shoot on manual. I find I do the same thing when I shoot multiple Speedlights. I know that the Nikon engineers have designed some really sophisticated algorithms, but the results are not always what I expected. Shooting on manual gives me consistent results from shot to shot.

[AllEx]

I find that using EC on the camera and flash tend to give me somewhat unpredictable results .

For the beginning I shoot manual, both on camera and flash, my goal is to get the proper lighting, as all, I`ll have to experiment till I discover the way it works. Fare enough to hear that EC complicates things, thank you Manfred.

[Manfred M]

For the beginning I shoot manual, both on camera and flash, my goal is to get the proper lighting, as all, I`ll have to experiment till I discover the way it works. Fare enough to hear that EC complicates things, thank you Manfred.

Alexander - just to clarify, I do use both approaches. It really depends on what I am shooting and the shooting situation.

Full automation is more likely to give you usable shots in a rapidly changing situation, for instance when you are working in a situation where the subject to shooter distance changes very quickly. The problem is that the lighting will not necessarily be consistent and may vary from shot to shot. Think about how Automatic White Balance works - you will get a usable white balance in every shot, but if you line up two or three shots and look at them together, they will all look a bit different. You will find a similar result when using Nikon's iTTL / CLS automation.

This is why I mentioned that when I should a multiple flash setting or work in a fairly static environment, I will go manual on the flash simply because each shot will end up looking the same as the others in the sequence. In this type of shooting environment the flash / camera to subject distance is relatively constant.

[Mike Buckley]

just to clarify, I do use both approaches. It really depends on what I am shooting and the shooting situation.

Exactly the same for me for the reasons you explained.