Problem with Nikon D70 and Vivitar ringlight flash

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital.slr-systems (More info?)

On 16 Jan 2005 20:16:52 -0800, "Vexius" <vexius1@hotmail.com> wrote:

>I have attached a Vivitar 6000AF ringlight flash (for Nikon) to a Nikon
>D70. However, I cannot get the shutter to fire. Camera is set to
>auto. Settings have been reset to default. The lens is a D series CPU
>lens (AF Micro Nikkor 105mm 1:2.8D). The ready light on the flash is
>lit, the test button fires the flash just fine. The flash indicator is
>blinking. The shutter fires correctly when the flash is not attached.
>The flash is TTL capable. I have tried focusing at various ranges from
>less than 1 foot to 8 feet. I have tried setting ISO to auto. Is
>there a setting I need to change in order for this to work right?

Never tried to use such a beast, but off-the-top-of-my-head you might try:

a) Set the camera to Manual mode. The D70 only fully supports "iTTL" flash
mode, which I doubt the Vivitar does. From the little I've heard about
using ring flashes, you'd probably want this mode anyway.

b) Switch autofocus mode to AF-C... if you're in AF-S and the camera can't
get focus, it won't fire the shutter (either the distance could be wrong
for the lens, or the flash unit might be blocking the AF-assist light).

b) Connect the flash to the shoe, but not mounting it on the lens... if
this works, then the ring-flash might have been physically constricting the
lens in some way [only a guess -- I don't know how it fits, so I don't know
how likely this is].

HTH.

Regards,
Graham Holden (g-holden AT dircon DOT co DOT uk)
--
There are 10 types of people in the world;
those that understand binary and those that don't.