Bowens / Nikon Speedlight / Wireless shutter release incompatibilities

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Dear sirs,

I’ve run into a technical problem firing Bowens in conjunction with Nikon Speedlights.  I know from trawling the web that others are managing to do this, but I don’t seem to be able find anyone to tell me how.  If you don’t have the answer in-house, are you able to point me in the direction of an expert who can help?

Essentially, I am attempting to fire one (or more – I don’t think the actual number makes any difference) off-camera Nikon Speedlights in sync with 2 or more Bowens Gemini 500s. By the way, whilst the Bowens are fitted with Pulsar trigger cards, the on-camera Pulsar wireless trigger is NOT being used in the first instance.

I set up an off camera Speedlight 900 (I also have an 800 but the same problem arises) on remote with an on-camera Nikon SU 800 on a Nikon D3 set to fire the Speedlight on manual. The D3 shutter speed is set to 1/125 and flash sync to 1/250 auto.  Having set two Bowens to 'cell', both trigger when the Speedlight fires, but neither flash is caught on image suggesting both Bowens fired out of sync. I then tried hard wiring one of the Bowens with a sync cord directly from the D3 whilst leaving the other Bowen on cell. This makes the hard wired strobe fire in sync, but the other (still on 'cell') does not.  At first I thought the out of sync problem for Bowens on ‘cell’ was being caused by pre flash from the Speedlight.  However, my understanding is that the Speedlight is not supposed emit any pre flash when set to manual.  This was rather confirmed by the problem persisting when the Speedlight was switched off altogether, namely both Bowens fired but only the wired one fired in sync!  I tracked the culprit down to the SU-800.  Simply remove it from the D3, without changing any other aspect of the configuration, and both Bowens fire in sync.  In seems to me the inescapable conclusion from this is that the SU-800 is emitting some kind of signal that is interfering with ‘cell’ set Bowens.  Is there any way round this to get Speedlights and Bowens to fire in sync?

I don't know whether this is unrelated to the Speedlight/Bowens incompatibility problem above but I have also found that a remote wireless shutter release (Yongnuo YN-126) interferes with the Bowens Pulsar wireless trigger. Just to make it clear, in this case (1) Speedlights are not involved – the Bowens are being used on their own – and (2) the Bowens are set to fire by an Pulsar wireless trigger on the D3 hotshoe.   All is fine if the shutter is released by pressing the button on the Yongnuo receiver ie in remote but wired mode.  However, if the shutter is released from the Yongnuo transmitter, ie wireless mode, the shutter releases ok, but the Bowens do not fire at all.  I came across this before encountering the out of sync phenomenon and put it to Trevor Howard in Bowens’ technical dept.  His only solution was to buy a second Bowens transmitter/receiver. However, I’m now wondering if a solution to the out of sync issue might also solve the wireless shutter release problem.  Again, any thoughts/suggestions/solutions would be appreciated.

This all sounds rather convoluted, which it is, but hopefully someone will understand the drift of what I’m on about.

Regards,

Actual Response

The Nikon Creative Lighting System works by firing various pre-flashes to communicate with the receiving Speedlites, these pre-flashes although infrared, will still trigger the Bowens lighting a fraction before the shutter opens. This as I'm sure you've found will result in blank frames.

You could try changing the default of the flash so it fires on the 3rd or 4th flash (please refer to page 6 in the Bowens manual for this), or set the flash to rear curtain sync which may work. I would still not recommend either of these options as the optical slave can be somewhat unreliable.

I would strongly recommend you use radio triggers and receivers on each of your heads, although not the cheapest option, this is by far the most reliable and would guarantee they would all fire together. You can use either the Bowens Pulsars, or the various other alternatives on the market, to trigger all you lights. You would need to connect the Nikon Speedlites to the receivers through the PC connection on the side, you would need to do this for all of your heads ideally.

The second problem with the flash is a mystery to me, there should be no reason why they wouldn't fire. I will investigate it further for you with a similar radio trigger and try and replicate your fault.

Further Questions

That’s really helpful – thank you.  Although I hadn’t fathomed that infra red might be the cause, I had rather assumed I would end up having to go the fully radio route.

Am I understanding correctly that my configuration would change as follows?

1)       The SU-800 would be replaced by the Pulsar transmitter on the D3 hotshoe and fire the Bowens normally.

2)       Each Speedlight would have its own Pulsar receiver wired to its PC port.

Questions:

a)       Would one hotshoe mounted Pulsar transmitter be able to trigger the Speedlight(s) as well as the Bowens, or would I need another one(s) fed from the D3’s PC port?

b)       Would I lose the ability to set the power of the Speedlight(s) remotely as I can do now using the SU-800.  This is obviously attractive if a Speedlight is being used as a hair/back light and is positioned high up and out of easy reach.

Sorry to trouble you again but being in the dark (so to speak!!) your help is much appreciated.

By the way, do you know if the radio equipment currently being used/sold to trigger strobes is going to be affected by the proposed sell off of frequencies currently proposed for 2012, as is expected to affect radio microphones?

Actual Response

1) The SU-800 would be replaced by the Pulsar transmitter on the D3 hotshoe and fire the Bowens normally.
Answer: Yes that would be best

2) Each Speedlight would have its own Pulsar receiver wired to its PC port.
Answer: That would be best or your can put the Speedlite to 'SU-4' Mode which is basic optical slave.

a) Would one hotshoe mounted Pulsar transmitter be able to trigger the Speedlight(s) as well as the Bowens, or would I need another one(s) fed from the D3’s PC port
Answer: A Single Pulsar could fire them all without any problems

b) Would I lose the ability to set the power of the Speedlight(s) remotely as I can do now using the SU-800. This is obviously attractive if a Speedlight is being used as a hair/back light and is positioned high up and out of easy reach.
Answer: I'm afraid so, you would have to walk over and change them. As far as I'm aware there is no solution to this, I have a feeling Pocket Wizard may come up with a solution for this to work in conjunction with there Flex and Mini radio triggers but there is nothing on the market at the moment.

In regards to your question about the radio frequency the Ofcom deadline of 2012 is for the switch off and reallocation of the radio bands between 470MHz and 862MHz or channel 21-69 in terms of TV; these frequencies are then going to be auctioned off to the governments gain.

The pulsar radio trigger units use the European free band 433.05MHz to 434.79MHz that is allocated for low power radio control systems, currently there are no plans in the EU to interfere with this frequency band.

For more information follow the link below.

http://spectruminfo.ofcom.org.uk/spectrumInfo/ukpfa?page=47

To cease the 433MHz band EU wide would have countless issues resulting in 100’s of millions of products being rendered useless, I doubt if we will ever see this happen.

I am happy to say we will not be having issues selling the pulsar regarding its radio frequency, in the foreseeable future.