SL2 with Nikon SB 700 flash?

[Jonathan Levin]

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Hi all.

Does anyone happen to know if my Nikon SB 700 flash will work with the SL2? Or at least not blow it up! I'm not concerned about all the in-camera things I might be missing, just want to know if it will trigger the flash without hurting camera. I also have the SC 29 extension cable that I assume will work if the flash works on camera. Any help would be great.

Thanks.

Jonathan

[sillbeers15]

Not certain about damaging your camera but the Nikon & Leica flash protocols differ although their pins location are identical physically. Your SB700 will only work on manual mode. Ie Only the center sync pin contact matters for any non compatible flash to work on any camera body.

[Jonathan Levin]

Thanks. I need to find out if I can use this so I can choose aperture I’d like on camera and then set the flash to “A” priority, but switch off TTL on flash. I also have to find out if I can set ISO on flash so it matches camera ISO, if that makes sense.

[giampo]

9 hours ago, Jonathan Levin said:

Thanks. I need to find out if I can use this so I can choose aperture I’d like on camera and then set the flash to “A” priority, but switch off TTL on flash. I also have to find out if I can set ISO on flash so it matches camera ISO, if that makes sense.

Hi, I think you can you use without any safe problems nor for the camera, neither for the flash.
Nikon contacts are compatible with leica, also profoto A1 for nikon works on leica, of course in manual mode.

I often used my  nikon SB900 with the SL, and now I will do it on the SL2.
To use it, you have to set the flash in A mode (of course also all manual works), than set on the flash, the aperture and the ISO of the camera (they have to be fixed), in that way the flash will work just like in a sort of TTL mode. I've always got perfect exposures.

Ciao 

[Clactonian]

I had similar worries but resolved these thanks to a professional photographer friend who recommended THESE cheap and cheerful radio triggers which enable me to use all of my old flash heads in manual mode on all of my cameras (Leica and Nikon). If anything is going to suffer it will be the radio trigger and at that price I'm not too bothered.

With one sender and two receivers I can use two heads off camera.

 

Edited December 4, 2019 by Clactonian

[Jonathan Levin]

Thanks Giampo and Clactonian! Just the info I needed.

[albireo_double]

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If you want to use the flash on camera, you can insert one of these between the body and the flash  Universal Hotshoe Adapter .

It will use only the central pin and block the others. I had my SL601 behave very strangely when I attached a Nikon version Elinchrom trigger on it once, so I would avoid inserting any Nikon-dedicated accessories in the SL2 hotshoe. But my experience is with a remote trigger, not with a flash, so perhaps setting the flash in A (as mentioned above) would also work.

Edited December 4, 2019 by albireo_double

[giampo]

19 hours ago, albireo_double said:

…. so perhaps setting the flash in A (as mentioned above) would also work.

Without perhaps, it works just fine without any problem.
Also with Profoto gear the nikon kind have to be used with leica, because they are compatible.

[albireo_double]

On 12/5/2019 at 5:01 PM, giampo said:

Without perhaps, it works just fine without any problem.
Also with Profoto gear the nikon kind have to be used with leica, because they are compatible.

Well, they are not compatible...the Air-TTL trigger is not compatible (meaning that it does not provide HSS and TTL) and, in the same sense, the A1 is not compatible. But of course, you can set the A1 to manual also and use it that way. And you can use the triggers in manual mode, without HSS and TTL (Air TTL Nikon, AirRemote and AirSync).

[giampo]

2 hours ago, albireo_double said:

Well, they are not compatible...the Air-TTL trigger is not compatible (meaning that it does not provide HSS and TTL) and, in the same sense, the A1 is not compatible. But of course, you can set the A1 to manual also and use it that way. And you can use the triggers in manual mode, without HSS and TTL (Air TTL Nikon, AirRemote and AirSync).

Well that is absolutely right, as written above only manual mode, or with the nikon also A mode, which anyway is very helpfull since it expose the scene automatically and correctly, just like TTL, only thing you have to set up the camera value into the flash. Sadly no way to use HSS. It would be very nice if profoto will make a Leica version of their gear.
I wrote compatible in the sense asked by Johnatan, so that they never miss to fire the flash, and there are no worries to damage the triggers, flashes or the camera.
But that is true only for nikon and stuff made for nikon. It also happened to me, using universal triggers to miss some shots.

Edited December 7, 2019 by giampo

[sillbeers15]

Leica produces cameras in low volume compared to Canon, Nikon & Sony. What is worse is that I notice majority of Leica camera users are ‘strobe shy’ lot. The claim they only like to use natural light ( I used to think that way cause I was afraid to move out of my comfort zone). As a result no flash/ strobe maker will be willing to dump resources on making their products Leica compatible where there is no money to be made.

I thought the only hope is a standardised L-Mount flash protocol. More like Leica adopt the Panasonic flash protocol. That way when there is more volume ( including the micro 4 thirds Panas), flash makers will take notice ( many flash makers produce Fuji compatibility products already).