Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I purchased a B800 flash unit, and shoot with a nikon D90. I also just purchased a hot shoe adapter because my camera doesn't have a place to plug in the sync cord. My flash unit isn't firing when hooked into my camera, but fires when i push the 'test' button. I've read the FAQ where it says i may need to purchase a two piece sync cord. What i'm wondering is, is this really the problem? and do i actually need to purchase ANOTHER cord. ahhh help.

A sync cord and hotshoe adapter are all that are required. There are various adapters on teh market, and we sell two kinds. One that is hot on top, with a thread on the bottom. We call this a speedlite foot adapter, and is for allowing speedlites to be used with our remotes. Also, we sell the one you need, which is hot on the bottom, and gets the signal from the camera and passes it to the cord and on to the light. Make sure the one you have, regardless of where you got it from, has a contact in the center of the bottom foot. If not, then it would be the wrong adapter. If so, then there could be a problem with the cord or adapter.

The one i bought from alienbees is the Speed Light Foot Adapter. Is this the wrong one? If so, what is the name of the one i need?

Yes, that one is incorrect to use for your camera, it is designed for a speedlite. You would need the HSA hot shoe adapter on the same page.

ok Thankyou!

Ok, so I have an additional question... I had the same issue. I bought the speedlite hot shoe adapter for my Nikon D90 with the same result as above. But, I have a speedlite flash that I wanted to use with my new B800. Will I be able to Use my flash with this HSA adapter? The whole reason I bought The Speedlite Foot Adapter was because the description said I could use my speedlite!

The speedlight foot adapter and the HSA hotshoe adapter are different things. If you look on the foot of the adapter, if it is plastic and you see a threaded hole, then that is to mount to your speedlight to be triggered by a CyberSync reciever. If it is metal, and has a little ball contact, that is to go on top of your camera to provide a PC connection for a sync cord.

The Speedlight Foot Adapter is part number SLFA

The Hotshoe Adapter is part number HSA

They are different and not interchangeable.

I'm not sure I'm following here.

I also have a D90, and I'm interested in purchasing an Alien Bee B800, as well as a speedlight SB-700. Obviously I would like to have these work in tandem.

Am I correct in thinking I can use the speedlight on camera and have it wirelessly fire the Alien Bee using the buit-in wireless slave trigger?

However, even if so, I'd still be interested in getting both of them pc-synced for certain situations. Is there an adapter that can handle pc-syncing both lights? Or is the best-case scenario to use that Hot Shoe Adapter with the speedlight on camera and the Alien Bee connected via a cord? Is there anyway to have both flashes off-camera and pc-synced?

I have a D90, an SB-700 and three Alienbees. I've had no trouble using the Alienbees, with either the SB-700 or the D90's own pop-up flash as the trigger.

The trick is that you MUST set the triggering flash to manual mode. This bears repeating: You MUST set the triggering flash to manual mode.

I've had good success even with the pop-up flash set to low (1/64th) power, or with the SB-700 set to 1/128. I've also used a gizmo from Nikon ("SG-31R") to block the visible light from the pop-up flash, while using it as a trigger for the alienbees.

My biggest problem with using the pop-up flash as a trigger is that it would overheat and shut down; currently I use a cheap & cheerful IR trigger, instead, with the SB-700 and the pop-up flash as emergency backups in case the IR trigger fails.

Sync cords OTOH, are something that I don't have any experience with. I've read enough about other photographers swearing at the things (as opposed to swearing by them) that I've avoided them. I've also been lucky, I guess, not to have encountered any problems where setting up a sync cord might be a solution.

Both the Alien Bee and the SB700 can be triggered as basic slave flashes. The pop up (or the B1600 or the SB700) on the D90 can act as a master if it is in manual output mode. CLS functions cannot be used, as they will fire pre-flashes and cause the lights to fire too early.

You can use our hotshoe adapter and speedlite foot adapter and run PC cords from the camera to each light simultaneously.