Nissin Di622 as optical slave, only works with some flashes?

[Davi]

quite possibly showing my ignorance (again) but what the hell... gotta learn somehow!

I assumed that 'optical slave' mode on the Di622 meant that it was being fired by the flash burst from the camera's built in flash - as in, the flash of light... is this correct or not? If it is correct, can anyone explain why it will trigger fine from the built in flash, but will NOT fire from any of the 5 other flashes I have?! All the other flashes are old but essentially still produce a burst of light so what else is required?

[Davi]

bump bump... anyone?

[SamHH]

I've never used this flash but I've had a quick look at Nissin's web page for it ( here). It looks like it isn't a plain optical slave that will fire whenever it sees another flash. Instead it works with your camera's proprietary trigger system that uses a series of 'pre-flashes' that are fired before the shutter opens to communicate with the remote flashgun.

My guess would be that whereas your in-built flash is doing the pre-flash, your other flashguns either aren't capable of or are not set to do it. What are the other flashguns?

It appears that the mark II version of the Nissin is capable of working as an ordinary optical slave.

[Davi]

thanks for the link Sam, I looked at Nissin site before posting and couldn't find mention, but reading that it would appear you are correct, it's not a 'true' optical slave in my view of the words. My other flashes are all old units of varying crapness, the 'best' of which is a 15 yr old Cobra, none of which appear compatible. Which is a bit of an arse really.

I will borrow my brothers Nikon flash and see if that works as the master, or I will bodge a optical slave onto it. This flash got rave reviews but frankly it's so far been unable to do most things I wanted a flash for!