Intelligent Sunshine

by Michael Goldstein

The front view of the SB-28 Speedlight shows the white dome of the red-eye reduction lamp, above the red AF illuminator, that allows autofocus in dark conditions. Below the AF illuminator can be seen the external power supply port, with its protective cover. The "hot shoe" connector, with its knurled locking device, is on the bottom.

Looking up from the cabin of our thirty-six foot sailing yacht, I can see my fellow crewmen gathered around the helmsman. Sailing conditions on Lake Huron are ideal. A brisk twenty-knot breeze has pushed up six-foot waves, and the boat is heeling about twenty degrees as we sail across the wind. The members of the cockpit crew, all holding on tightly to rails or stays, have adopted dynamic positions. It’s a great photo opportunity.

As I reach for my camera, my mind’s eye remembers the dark shadows I’ve just seen created by hats overhanging faces. The autumn sunshine is beating down from a clear sky, so I snap Nikon’s new SB-28 Speedlight flash into the camera’s hot shoe. Turning on both camera and flash, the SB-28 at once picks up the ISO rating to which the camera is set. As I adjust the zoom lens on the camera, I can hear the zoom head on the flash follow suit.

My flash is set for “3-D Multi-range balanced fill flash”, a TTL (through-the-lens) mode that measures flash output from the film plane inside the camera body. There’s no need for me to tell the flash I’m using a polarizing filter. With my F100 Nikon camera, I could have chosen center-weighted or spot-metered fill flash, standard TTL flash, or even full

The rear of the SB-28 Speedlight contains all necessary controls. The LCD display screen shows the current flash settings, as well as the ISO rating, and the effective flash range. Below the display screen are controls (left to right) for the zoom head, mode, choice
SELection, and the + and - compensation buttons.

The ON/OFF button is in the lower right corner, and the flash charge indicator and the "fire" button are in the lower left corner. To the right of the flash recycle indicator, the LCD display illuminator button lights up the screen display for brief intervals when necessary.

manual flash--but I’m in a hurry. I need only enough flash to fill the hat shadows, so I’ve set the flash for -1 f-stop of compensation. This setting is as easy as pushing the “-“ button on the back of the flash. The display blinks until I press the “SEL(ect) button, as well. The flash does the rest, automatically giving me perfect exposures with shadows only one f-stop darker than the existing ambient light. For slide film, this is ideal.

With my older camera and flash, I could have measured the ambient light and adjusted my aperture, and then manually set my flash for the exact f-stop I needed for fill flash. (By that time, all my great grab shots would have disappeared.) As the ambient light changed, I would have been forced to repeat the procedure. The Nikon SB-28 Speedlight flash is magic!

The following morning--a soft, cloudy day--I catch our skipper on deck. I need a highlight in his eye for a perfect portrait. I swivel the flash head straight up, raise the built-in bounce card, retain the -1 stop of fill compensation I used the day before, and shoot.

By afternoon, the sky is dark and brooding, spitting occasional rain. The cockpit crew is wearing rain gear, the bright colors jumping out of the subdued light. This time, I want my flash to be my main light source, overcoming the cloudy ambient light. One f-stop should do it, so I press the “+” button to get the right compensation of +1 f-stop of flash, then again press “SEL.” To avoid having a light source that’s too harsh, I borrow an idea from Galen Rowell and slip a precut plastic warming gel halfway over the flash head. Static electricity holds it in place, and the resulting shots are just what I wanted.

The "Green Mountain Boys" were found while walking through Woodstock, Vermont, one find autumn day. The overhead sun was casting dark shadows on faces and fronts, so the SB-28 was used to supply fill flash, one f-stop less than the ambient light. Compare the shadows on the faces, with those under the covered bridge in the
background.

My F100 manual claims my camera will auto focus in light too dim for sight if it’s used with an SB-28 Speedlight. I have a chance to test the claim the next evening when the gang decides to take the rubber dinghy and tow to the beach for a bonfire. I preset the camera for auto focus, and adjust the flash for straight matrix metering without compensation. The beach party is just casting off from the stern of the boat as I turn on the camera. To say the light is “too dim for me to focus” is an understatement. It’s black as pitch out there, and I can’t see a thing! I aim the camera in the general direction of the voices, punctuated with a few screams as the flash fires several times, then retreat before somebody throws a boathook at me. The perfect image resulting from my test makes the risk worthwhile.

The next morning, I put my beloved manual techniques to work to shoot a classroom session in the cabin. My 17mm wide-angle lens is a Tamron and won’t “talk” to the flash or the F100 body. With no time to experiment, I preset the lens aperture to f8, and select “M(anual) mode, and “f8" on the flash. I rotate the flash head to bounce light from the white deck overhead, and voila! I have some good interior shots.

I use four AA alkaline cells to power the flash, the cheapest of my battery options and the easiest to find. With older equipment, I might wait twenty seconds or more for the flash to recharge using this power supply, so I use an external gel battery to achieve six-second recharge times. (Although you can also use an external power pack with the SB-28, I find it gives me six-second recharges with the internal cells, and a greater light output, with a smaller, lighter unit.) This new technology is terrific!

This image of a boat crew in a raft was made in the pitch dark, using the "AF illuminator" feature of the SB-28 flash, together with the autofocus capability of the F100 body. An example of the advantages of new technology, this image would have been impossible to make otherwise, as it was too dark to focus, or even to aim the camera properly.

Using the Nikon SC17 remote cord, I’ve used the SB-28 off camera, particularly when I’m shooting close-ups. The SB-28 has a built-in flash diffuser, which can be used when setting the zoom head to the 18mm position. The SB-28 can also be connected in series with other similar units for studio work and can deliver a series of strobe flashes for special-effect work at night with moving targets.

I’ve used fill flash for many years, but I always found the setup time frustrating and a programmable flash unit tough to carry in a small fanny pack. Finally, with Nikon’s SB-28, I have the ability to make perfect flash-assisted grab shots in almost any kind of light. It’s like having intelligent sunshine in my camera bag.

SB-28 SPEEDLIGHT SPECIFICATIONS

The flash head rotates vertically from –– 7 degrees to +90 degrees, locking in straight ahead and at forty-five, sixty, and seventy-five degrees. The flash head rotates horizontally, backward and forward through one hundred fifty, one hundred twenty, ninety, sixty, and thirty degrees. It has a built-in bounce card as well as a wide-angle flash diffuser that matches a 20mm or 18 mm lens. The SB-28 has an automatic adjusting zoom head that can be controlled manually (with many models of Nikon camera). It has six zoom head positions including 24mm, 28mm, 35mm, 50mm, 70mm, and 85mm. It has repeating flash mode and flash exposure compensation in 1/3 steps from ––3.0 to +1.0. Red eye reduction, rear curtain sync, and slow sync are also available. Guide number, which depends on the ISO rating and the zoom head position, varies from sixty at wide angles to one hundred sixty-four at the 85mm position. The average recycling time with new alkaline cells is approximately six seconds.

The SB-28 Speedlight provides both front and rear curtain sync modes. There is an AF-illumination facility that allows auto focus in very low-light situations. The LCD panel can be illuminated for short periods, for dark viewing. The unit weighs in at 11.9 ounces and has dimensions of 2.7" X 5" X 3.6".