ND500 Metadata Flash

[Mags 4]

I'm tryingto sort out an album of shots from my latest exploits in Indonesia and I note it states "flash did not fire" when it clearly did via fibre optic trigger mounted onto the cold shoe onto a YS flash manually. Anyone got any ideas why this is the case. Nikon D500. Attached a screen shot.

 

Edited January 17 by Mags
adding jpg

[Barmaglot 226]

If it's a manual-only trigger, then I suspect that for the purpose of filling in this particular metadata field, the camera expects a TTL flash to communicate with it, confirming that it actually fired. With a manual-only trigger, the camera just closes a circuit momentarily and does not get anything back, so it has no way of knowing whether or not a flash actually fired.

Also, if you want to attach a screenshot, you can use Windows Snipping Tool to take it, put it into clipboard, and then just Ctrl+V it into a post; there is no need to photograph the screen with a phone.

[TimG 62]

Hmmm, interesting. I use Retra strobes on a D500 via a UWT Subal HSS v4 trigger. The flash icon in the viewfinder always illuminates when the camera is turned on with the trigger connected; and the Metadata does show: Flash "did fire".

Maybe it's a S&S YS thing? Which trigger have you got? UWT, right?

[ChrisRoss 150]

On 1/18/2023 at 12:01 AM, TimG said:

Hmmm, interesting. I use Retra strobes on a D500 via a UWT Subal HSS v4 trigger. The flash icon in the viewfinder always illuminates when the camera is turned on with the trigger connected; and the Metadata does show: Flash "did fire".

Maybe it's a S&S YS thing? Which trigger have you got? UWT, right?

The UWT trigger is TTL so it needs to tell the camera that it is a flash so it can communicate with the camera.  The manual only triggers don't have any such requirement and are triggered by the x-sync contacts closing, no digital communication and the camera has no idea the trigger is even there.

[rwb500 17]

My DIY manual LED trigger registers as "not fired" on my Nikon D810.

[Kraken de Mabini 168]

It has to do with the number of plug shoe plug contacts and wires connecting the camera to the strobe.  In a plug with only two contacts, they close the circuit to fire the strobes, but carry no information to the camera.  When more than two, the other contacts and wires transmit electrical pulses, i e, information, between the strobes and the camera, which is shown by the camera each time the strobes are fired.

 

[ChrisRoss 150]

5 minutes ago, Kraken de Mabini said:

It has to do with the number of plug shoe plug contacts and wires connecting the camera to the strobe.  In a plug with only two contacts, they close the circuit to fire the strobes, but carry no information to the camera.  When more than two, the other contacts and wires transmit electrical pulses, i e, information, between the strobes and the camera, which is shown by the camera each time the strobes are fired.

 

It's actually a little more than that, the contacts need to be wired to a system that the camera can communicate with and register that a flash is attached, only when it recognises a flash being attached will it record in the EXIF that flash is fired.  For example some third party flashes will include a circuit  to record that the auto flash worked, this may or may not register with the camera.

[Kraken de Mabini 168]

Yes, it is likely another marvel of microcomputers with associated circuitry, in the camera and in the strobe, "talking" to each other.  I have taken apart a few damaged strobes and the complexity of their circuitry is mind boggling, some very sophisticated electronics work inside a strobe to flash its xenon tube.