grr nikon sb800 ?

[Nomadr]

can anybody shed any light on my problem, i have both an SB600 and recently purchased an SB800, i was playing about with high speed sync on my D3 and noticed the SB800 wasnt getting the whole frame at speeds above 250 (the normal sync speed for that camera), i dug out my old SB600 and that was fine even at really high speeds,
am i doing something wrong ? cheers martyn
ps i am planning to drop a lemon slice into a glass (i know its old hat but i have never tried it) so any tips on that would also be useful, lol,

[Clactonian]

What settings were you using on the SB800 Martyn?

[Nomadr]

hi mike i tried a few settings inc manual,the one that should have worked (imo) was TTL,FP.
i also tried using the hotshoe cable (genuine nikon) and while the flash fired it wasnt very bright, as soon as i put the SB800 on the hotshoe it was so bright it overexposed the pic,cheers martyn

[inkista]

What's your lighting setup? Are you using CLS or radio triggers? The SB-800 as on-shoe commander? Or off-camera with the pop-up as commander? The 1/250 and dark bars on the frame sounds like exceeding your max. sync speed (i.e., FP/high-speed synch isn't happening).

I hate to say it, but it sounds like there might be something wrong with the SB-800 itself, though. I'd say run all the usual checks: clean the contacts, make sure it's properly seated on the hotshoe, and that the batteries are good.

[Clactonian]

So, assuming your D3 works in similar fashion to my D2xs, then you have your Flash Sync (setting e1 on D2Xs) set to 1/250(auto fp), your mode set to S or M, and your metering to evaluative? The SB800 to TTL/BL/FP mode?
Just tried that at 1/5000 F2.8 and it works OK.
I'm stumped.

[Nomadr]

i am tempted to go with instika, everything should work but it doesnt , i bought the sb800 used so i dont know its history, i was going to use it as the master to control the 600 but i dont think it can control itsself never mind another,
clactorian i just need to try your settings, not sure about evaluatiive metering ?everything else should be same as d2x, i tried the flash in both ttl/fp and ttl/balanced fill/fp, i set the controls in camera for FP (i/250th + fp) cheers martyn ps pretty crap with flash settings, its not something i use regularly but would love to get into it,

[JonathanC]

Just a guess here. Perhaps the SB800 is set as either a remote master or remote slave? That would cause wierdness.
In slave mode, you can still set it to TTL etc, it just doesn't work right, unless you are slaving it of course.
ISTR there is a reset that you can do to put it back to a new out of the box condition.

[Nomadr]

thanks for the comments, it didnt come with a manual but i can find a run through of the settings inc factory reset on a youtube video, i have a feeing it might be my camera, i was playing with sb600 today in high speed sync and at one stage i was getting the same problem, then next minute the camera switched to 1/250th, maybe its time for a service, just charged another set of batteries up so will have another go with the 800, cheers martyn