Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I wanted to get my wife something along the lines of making her own home portrait studio this year for Christmas. We will piece things together over the next few months but I wanted to start off with a flash unit. I don't know much about photography but have been doing some research over the last few days...

I had a question about my the camera my wife owns and the b400 flash unit. She has a Nikon d40 and I was wondering what exactly do I need for her camera to trigger the flash of the b400?

Would something like this work? http://www.amazon.com/Nikon-Camera-flas ... B00007EDY5

Also, I am only buying one light for Christmas but will get another soon. Will two lights work with the same adapter?


Thanks

Just get her a cybersync trigger and receiver. That will come with everything she needs. You can then either make a lanyard and pouch for the receiver, or velcro it to the flash itself.

All the best.

The D40 has a built-in flash that can be used to trigger the B400 using it's optical slave, so the extra Nikon gadget is not needed. This should be sufficient as long as you're using umbrella's. It also requires that the built-in flash be set such that it doesn't emit a pre-flash.

I dont think the pre-flash can be turned of on the D40. In that case you will need a remote like the Cyber Syncs, or a hotshoe adapter, which we carry one as well. http://www.alienbees.com/parts.html -part HSA

Thanks for the help guys... Hey I did read this about setting up manual flash to trigger strobes... does it look correct?

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d40/us ... tom.htm#14

I guess I stand corrected. This is one of the few cameras at this price point that allows this. If these instructions are correct (and I assume they are), then that will work to trigger the lights. However, Should she enter an environment where other flash photos are being taken, the Bee will trigger from those flashes as well. There are other instances where the optical trigger is less desirable, but for a start up home studio it is fine.