If you came in here, Part One of this was about the basic setups.

Summary, Pros and Cons of the Commander system

There is much good in this Nikon Commander/Remote system, and very much convenience. This automatic system is extremely handy and extremely quick to throw a couple of speedlights out there, snap the picture with automatic setup, and pack up and be gone (it is automatic point & shoot remote wireless multiple TTL flash). This is not suggesting there is no advantage of learning some lighting and photography principles, but the system can give you automated good exposures. And certainly the work can be much more serious too (pay attention, and if necessary, correct what needs it, and do it again). But at some point, the Commander/Remote system is not without a few limitations too.

Some advantages of Commander/Remote system are:

• Easy Wireless Remote triggering of multiple flash units — just set them out there somewhere (side sensor aimed back at commander). Remember it is line of sight however, especially if lights are farther than maybe five feet from commander.
• TTL metering of individual multiple remote flash units. Speaking of two lights in two groups A and B to allow individual control. Just set them out there, direct flash, or in umbrellas, or bounced, or whatever. Mix or match modifiers and lighting situations, doesn't matter, TTL will meter each group as to what it contributes. Distance does not matter to the ratio. Distance does diminish the light greatly, but TTL will still meter it and set its power level (assuming within range of the available flash power). Commander automation sets each TTL group's power level to be equal light level AT THE SUBJECT. This individual control is an overwhelming thing, for point & shoot flash, speaking of a couple of flashes.
• Compensation is easily possible, collectively, and/or individually for each group, including ability to simply set your desired lighting ratio in the commander menu (for example, in commander menu, set the fill light -1 EV, for ratio, when used as a fill light).
• Manual power level control is also available, each manual group's level is set in the commander menu individually, without walking to the remote flash. Full to 1/128 power level. One group could be TTL, one group could be manual power level (except the SB-700 commander menu must all be same mode).
• You set commander and all lights to communicate using any one of four channels (1..4). Four channels allow four photographers to not interfere with each other working in the same room. In general, pick any channel (must be same channel for every unit, lights and commander), but put each light into a different group if possible, groups A and B. These will be the lights at A and B in the commander menu. Different groups allow the commander menu to individually control each light. Lights combined into the same group will be controlled as one light.
• So, bottom line is a biggie. Multiple lights (groups) are automatically made equal at the subject. We may not always want "equal", but it is a great relative starting point. Then we can adjust each remote light's power level, and their ratio to each other, remotely from the Commander menu at the camera. Just set them out there somewhere, and the metering and triggering system is automatic. Basically, an automatic point & shoot wireless remote TTL multiple flash system, but with control too.

Some downsides of Commander/Remote system are:

• Optical line-of-sight commands are limited: obstacles block them, sunlight masks them, and distant range weakens them, all are issues which hamper it. This can be a biggie, we do absolutely need it to trigger. however, the general case indoors is usually easy. The sensor on side of the remote flash should be aimed at the commander on the camera. If you intend to hide the background flash behind the subject so it cannot be seen, then the commander cannot see it either, and it most likely will not work. There can be exceptions, certainly if flash is close enough to camera, and/or if the walls are close enough. Close can work surprisingly well, like even with the flash five or even ten feet behind the camera commander, and sensor aimed sideways (no line of sight). Works well on a flash bracket above the camera too (no line of sight). So try things, sometimes it appears to work simply because it is close. But in difficult cases, try aiming the remote sensor for bounce from the appropriate helpful NEAR wall, not always impossible. You can see the first two setup pictures above are not really line of sight, but are close to camera, and which usually works anyway. The third setup is farther, and line of sight becomes pretty important. The commander is very weak level, but near umbrellas for tabletop, or for living room portraits normally work well, but frankly, forget it for a hidden distant background light. It is an optical line of sight system (close and strong reflections might work, but anything else is about impossible). Light will not go through obstacles.

  The Commander is a complex optical signal at lowest power level. Frankly, simple optical slave triggers for manual lights work much more reliably indoors, due to the simpler signal triggered from the full final working level of the triggering flash. And radio triggers for manual lights work great outdoors, at great distances, in bright sun, and through obstacles.

• All that commander flashing before the shutter opens makes the human subjects blink, and it is timed so that we get pictures of the eyes blinking. This can be a biggie, but it only applies to TTL flash (does not apply to manual power levels). This is solved with Nikon's FV Lock (see camera manual, those with a Commander. Also see below). People are different, some always blink, and some seem not to. A few people always even blink at hot shoe iTTL preflash too. This is NOT their fault, this is the photographer's problem. Using an infrared commander is invisible to human subjects, so it helps avoid this blinking (the SU-800 commander is infrared, or also using the SG-3IR Panel on a camera commander is infrared), but blinking can also be caused by the visible Remote TTL preflashes too. FV Lock solves it in every case. And there is no blinking problem except for TTL flash.
• The camera internal flash commander sends one "Everybody Fire NOW!" Commander trigger signal after the shutter opens. Normally little issue, assuming you surely have already disabled the internal flash group (with mode "- -" in commander menu), but there can still be some effect in some cases. At macro distances (inches), or at f/2.8, this might add a bit of illumination on the subject. At close range (a few feet), this can cause a reflection in shiny subjects (even catch lights in eyes). My D300 commands meter about f/4 ISO 200 at 2 feet, which is actually the command to set power level in the remote, earlier than the trigger signal. This can be prevented by using the SU-800 commander (uses infrared signals instead of visible commands), or by adding the Nikon SG-3IR IR Panel over the camera internal flash commander. This panel passes the infrared needed by the remotes, but it blocks visible light which can interfere or cause blinking. See photos at page bottom for the nature of this situation.
• TTL automation meters the scene again at every frame, sometimes introducing slight variables into a fixed situation (subject turns their head, etc). Again, FV Lock is the solution, can add consistency. But manual flash power levels are very handy in a fixed studio situation.
• There is an increased shutter lag waiting for the preflash and metering of the multiple groups. The commander signals to the groups occur before the shutter opens. We usually glimpse the remote TTL preflash in the viewfinder just before the mirror goes up. Disable unused groups with "- -" (mode in Commander menu), but again, FV Lock is the solution.
• The Commander system is not expandable into a larger system. Individual control means placing only one light into each group. Camera internal flash commanders can control two remote groups A and B. The SU-800, SB-800, SB-900 or SB-910 commanders on hot shoe can control three remote groups, ABC (SB-700 two remote groups, A & B, but these have to be the same mode). Adding more lights can be a major issue, requiring they be combined into groups with other lights, all lights in one group receiving the same command signals, acting as one, no individual control. It cannot set the flashes power at the flash itself, must use a group in the Commander menu.

• Attempting to mix and use manual flash gear with the Commander system is generally a big problem. The obvious easy way is to instead simply use either the Commander system as it was designed, or to use an all Manual system (meaning, Real manual). The choice of using one system or the other system is pretty close to the only solution. Comments follow about incompatibilities with manual gear, and perhaps a couple of mild workarounds for the "determined" users:

  Commander with manual power levels is still Commander, and is NOT the same as (real) Manual flash mode. Manual flash mode (the mode called M in the flash manual) has no Commander signals, and those flashes are set to Manual mode instead of Remote mode. Manual gear does not expect Commander signaling or preflashes. The Commander may provide a way to set power level manually, but it is still Commander, and Commander is NOT to be confused with Manual flash mode.

  Manual optical slave triggers routinely work great with regular Manual flash mode, but are incompatible with the Commander system. However the SB-600 has a lower sync voltage than some, which can give a little trouble with add-on optical slaves, which is discussed Here. The Nikon SB-700, SB-800, SB-900, and SB-910, all have a great built-in optical slave trigger (their SU-4 mode), which is still incompatible with the Commander. Optical slaves attempted with the Commander will be triggered before the shutter opens, by all the commander signal flashing (infrared or visible), and also by remote TTL preflashing. Not only are these optical slave flashes expended before the shutter opens, these too-early flashes may interfere with the metered preflashes. FV Lock possibly may work (in some cases) this for TTL mode, letting the SU-4 optical slaves trigger with FV Lock, but then recharge for the final flash. But FV Lock won't help visible light Commander Manual mode (for optical slave triggers).

  Tedious to discuss, but "digital" optical slave triggers (designed to work with compact point & shoot cameras) can ignore one iTTL hot shoe flash preflash, but they still cannot work with the complex Commander multiple signals. Optical slaves will falsely trigger at the command signals too, before shutter is open. Regular optical slaves may (or may not) seem to work from an iTTL trigger, if flash and trigger are able to be triggered twice that quickly — but not if they expended full power on first flash. But if set to lower power, they might be able to trigger at preflash, and again at final flash with some power left (which is not optimum planning). But even those that do work with iTTL are NOT going to work from the Commander, too many flashes. There will be no visible contribution from the optical triggered flash with commander. This is not the way to plan your work.

The Nikon Commander is a wireless system. The D200/D300/D700/D800 cameras disable the camera PC sync connector anytime the internal flash door is open (commander or not, but a hot shoe flash does not disable camera PC connector). The Remote flashes also disable their PC sync connector and their flash foot anytime in Remote mode, so no connections are possible. There is no way to use an adapter in the camera hot shoe if the internal flash door is open for commander, or if the SU-800 commander is used.
Radio triggers, for remote Manual flash? You will need either the hot shoe or the PC sync port, and the internal door open shuts down both.

Exceptions if using a hot shoe commander: (if with the specific equipment):

• The SB-800/SB-900/SB-910 used as commander on hot shoe has a PC sync connector which still works to trigger a manual flash (since their flash foot still must work — however this is Not true if in its Remote mode). This flash commander can be about four feet off camera in a SC-28/SC-17 hot shoe extension cord.
• Or a hot shoe Commander (SU-800 or a flash with commander) will not disable the camera's PC sync connector (if the camera model has one).
• These hot shoe commanders can allow the PC sync cable, direct or to a radio trigger, but optical slaves will still be the same major problem with any Commander.
• To trigger remote flashes with simple optical triggers (S1 mode on some), you could set all Commander Groups A and B to Off (to mode "- -"), and set internal flash to Manual lowest power (in Commander). Probably works if all Groups are off, but why work that way? Easier and much more to the point to get out of Commander mode (which is something else entirely), and just set the internal flash directly to real Manual mode and lowest power.

Handheld flash meters will simply meter the early weak commander signals, not the final flash. We cannot control TTL lights anyway (except via Flash Compensation). The visible commander signals will also interfere with the meter, same way, for TTL or manual level. Every shutter button flashes to send TTL or Manual power level to the remote. The meter will meter this, not the actual flash unit. However, an infrared commander may not interfere with the meter. Sekonic meters (has IR filter to Not be sensitive to infrared) can be used with Commander Manual power levels, in some cases -- IF using a SU-800 commander, or IF the Nikon SG-3IR IR Panel is used in front of the camera commander, AND ALSO IF meter is not too close to the commander. Meter should be at least 5 or 6 feet distant from shielded infrared commander to not see any effect (may see EU error if closer). You cannot meter the internal flash this way (in Commander mode), the red infrared panel interferes, and without it, the command flash interferes. Any TTL group preflash will still interfere, but FV Lock can shift that to be earlier. Switching all lights to real Manual mode is the easy solution, especially if you plan to use a flash meter. Triggering can be optical slave or radio trigger (SB-700 to SB-910 all have the SU-4 mode).

Alternately (handheld flash meter) without filters, you could just set a 1/2 second shutter speed in the flash meter, regardless if you are using 1/200 second in the camera. This causes the meter to sample the light for 1/2 second, so it will see both the command, and the final flash. Assuming the final flash is much stronger, this can work. It is a different time sample than the camera will sample however.

You do realize these are kludges, right? Really, just pick either a Commander system or a Manual flash system, and go with it. All works great if you don't attempt to mix systems.

Opinion

There are many downside issues, and the Commander is not always the best choice, not even always a workable choice. However, it does a lot too, and what it does do is pretty impressive.

Again, the correct plan really has to be (as if there were any alternative): Either choose to use the Nikon Commander system, as designed, or choose to use an all manual flash system, as designed, but forget about trying to mix two very radically different systems.

Just wishing... If only this fancy automated system were a radio system, integrated into camera and flashes, many of the drawbacks of the optical system would be eliminated (i.e., line of sight, range, bright sunshine). Radio Poppers and Pocket Wizard have special radio systems for Nikon to relay these commander optical commands via radio for greater range, and it would solve some of the other issues too. Note though, all of the other radio triggers are manual mode only, and not compatible with the commander.

Not at all unique to this system, but any speedlight flash power and recycle time can be marginal in some cases. At ISO 200, one SB-800 at full power in 45 inch white reflective umbrella can do f/5.6 at ten feet to fabric for groups, or f/11 at four feet to fabric for portraits. The SB-600 should be very close to this too, but this is full power. This power is often adequate... the issue is more likely the longer recycle time.

Umbrellas are the only modifiers the speedlights fit easily, but umbrellas are simply fantastic (they are large! Nothing substitutes for large).

FV Lock - Working Around the Blinking in Humans

Manual Mode flash (the actual real Manual mode called M in the menu of the flash unit) does not cause humans to blink. But the flash is sudden, and the shutter is at the same instant, before they can blink. But if using the Commander, it flashes commands first, which cause the blinking, and then the shutter comes along at just the right time to capture the blinking. If using the Commander, there are three ways to minimize blinking in humans:

1. Use the Nikon SG-3IR panel over the internal flash commander (see below). Or using the SU-800 Commander is about the same idea (filtered). The remote TTL flashes still preflash however, so much improved, but not fail safe.
2. Set all Commander groups to its MAN manual mode (which is NOT at all the same thing as real Manual mode — light meters and optical slaves still don't work, etc.) Commander signals are then much closer to the shutter opening, with no TTL preflashes, and probably no pictures of blinking.
3. Simply use FV Lock with TTL mode, to get all the preflashes and blinking over with before the final picture begins.

FV Lock is very important. The cameras without a Commander do not have this feature. FV Lock (Flash Value Lock) is a function button on the camera, often programmed to be the Depth Of Field Preview button (on the models with a commander and DOF Preview). FV Lock is the solution to several things. You can frame and focus, and push the FV Lock button. Then the preflash and metering occurs, and the subject's blinking also occurs too, to get it over with before it matters. The shutter does not activate with it. The camera remembers this metered Flash Value, and shows a small L symbol in bottom left of viewfinder to indicate the flash exposure is locked (see camera manual: FV Lock). Then the next several shutter buttons will use that same remembered Flash Value, without any more preflashes or blinking. You can press the FV Lock button again to turn it off, or more common, it will time out when the display light times out (both of which loses the L, so learn to watch that L symbol in viewfinder, which keeps you informed). Shutter half press resets time out to keep the display on, and there is a menu to set a longer display time out.

Metering: TTL BL flash may meter all the RGB sensors in all the frame area, but TTL only meters an area in the center of the frame. Modes Matrix, Center, and Spot are only about ambient light, and selecting a different metering mode will not affect a TTL picture indoors in insignificant ambient (implying low ISO). However, FV Lock is different. Note the chart in the camera manuals under FV Lock says that FV Lock meters a different size area in the center (for iTTL, both modes), and this can change results. FV Lock actually acts more like we would imagine Spot metering would (but does not follow focus point). That is for hot shoe flash. For Commander and remote flash, which is TTL BL (unless Spot metering), it says FV Lock continues to meter full screen.

One function of FV Lock is to focus and meter at one place, and then to shift the camera somewhat for the final shutter. Because of this, FV Lock also ignores D-lens subject distance data that affects TTL BL direct flash. With the Commander however, FV Lock is very important for pictures of people, who blink at all of the Commander flashing. The tabletop scene above couldn't care less about blinking, but the commander signals often do make humans blink at just the wrong time. Even hot shoe TTL preflash causes some people to blink. FV Lock is the only way to bypass that problem for TTL flash. But again, FV Lock can be used to reframe the camera view after the exposure was metered. FV Lock does all the TTL signaling and preflash and metering and blinking early (at the FV Lock button).

However, for Manual power levels, nothing at all happens at the FV Lock button (no preflash, no metering). For Manual power level groups, the Commander menu already specifies the power levels to use. Then... regardless if TTL or Manual level, and regardless if FV Lock or not, the power level signal for each group to use is transmitted to the remote immediately before shutter opens.

Just to see this happen once, you can differentiate between the command signals and the final flash by setting Rear Curtain Sync and a slow shutter speed of about one second. Then you can see the difference, before the shutter, and at the end of the shutter. FV Lock will do the TTL preflash and metering early (for each individual TTL group). Then BOTH modes, TTL and manual power levels, continue to send command flashes immediately at the start of every shutter button (which I believe to set power level, and ready the remote to trigger in the next short period). Then you see the one second shutter, then the Everybody Fire NOW! trigger, and then the remote flashes flash, and the shutter closes.

NOTE: You need to be aware that adding a hot shoe commander (SU-800 or SB flash) to a camera without commander does not add the FV Lock feature. FV Lock must be in the camera, and the Nikon cameras without commander do not have it. Pity... One common use of FV Lock is to separate the command flashes and the remote TTL preflashing from the shutter, to prevent blinking. It can also be used to advantage with hot shoe TTL flash. If the added commander is the SU-800, it uses an Infrared filter to suppress visible light, and blinking is minimized (however the remote TTL preflashes could still do it). Or, the Nikon SG3-IR panel (below) can be added. My own notion is that money to add such a commander might be better spent for a camera model upgrade instead... which can also provide a Commander.

Unwanted light contribution from Commander Trigger Signal

There are some demonstration pictures below, showing the Commander Trigger signal in the bulleted list above (using a mirror to show it). The Commander must flash a weak signal to trigger the remotes after the shutter is open. Then the Commander can in some cases cause catch light reflections in close or shiny subjects.

The first picture below shows the D300 Commander's trigger signal, even though the internal flash is disabled with the "- -" mode (camera commander menu, mode for the group for built-in flash). There is additional commander signal flashing before the shutter opens (which can cause the subject to blink). This trigger shown occurs after the shutter opens, to trigger the remote flashes in sync. This trigger flash is very low level, but it can reflect in close shiny things. This mirror is exceptionally reflective, but it could also be a catch light in a glass vase or a human eyeball. This trigger signal is the same for either Commander TTL or Commander manual power level modes. FV Lock does prevent all the flashing that causes the subject to blink, but FV Lock does not affect this necessary trigger signal.

This room lighting is from the bounced remote SB-800 on the stand behind camera, about four feet below the ten foot ceiling. Yes, this remote sensor (on side of flash) ought to be aimed at the camera in the mirror, but it wasn't. This is a small room with lots of mirror reflection, and it works easily anyway. There is a white card taped to the mirror in lower right, just to have something close and bright at 3 feet.