I was shooting in manual mode with my D50 with a non-dedicated Sunpak 555. Sometimes the camera would not fire. Was the built-in piddle flash trying to cycle, even with camera is full manual?

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Hi John,

Welcome to Nikonians!
Did you have he built in Speedlight turned On (in the up position)?
If he built in Speedlight is On, it will prevent the shutter from releasing until the capacitor is charged regardless of exposure mode.

How do you have the Sunpak 555 connected to your D50?
Via a Nikon dedicated module(film TTL) in the hotshoe or a simple non-Dedicated hot foot in the hotshoe, or a PC cord connected to a Hotshoe to PC adaptor in the D50's hotshoe?
Good Luck and Enjoy your Nikons!

Best Regards,
Marty

>Hi John,
>
>Welcome to Nikonians!
>Did you have he built in Speedlight turned On (in the up
>position)?
************
It should not have been up. Would it pop up in manual mode?

>If he built in Speedlight is On, it will prevent the shutter
>from releasing until the capacitor is charged regardless of
>exposure mode.
**********
Yes.
>
>How do you have the Sunpak 555 connected to your D50?
>Via a Nikon dedicated module(film TTL) in the hotshoe or a
>simple non-Dedicated hot foot in the hotshoe, or a PC cord
>connected to a Hotshoe to PC adaptor in the D50's hotshoe?
>Good Luck and Enjoy your Nikons!
********
The latter, Marty. I masked all but the hot shoe connection in the camera shoe. I supposed I could find a TTL module someplace, but I have been doing F/stops for a lotta years. Most of the time my set up worked fine. It was just for or five frame from an entire shoot where this happened. It was, iirc, just backlighted scenes. But the piddle flash should not have popped up in manual mode, correct?

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Hi John,


>Would it pop up in manual mode?

No. You would have to press the flash button on the side of the prism for the built in flash to deploy.

> I masked all but the hot shoe connection
>in the camera shoe. I supposed I could find a TTL module
>someplace, but I have been doing F/stops for a lotta years.

A TTL module would not help because the Sunpak 555 is designed for Film TTL flash control and is Not compatible with the i-TTL flash control system incorporated in the D50. The reason I asked is the extra contact might cause a communication problem between the camera and Sunpak 555 since their TTL flash control systems are incompatible.

>Most of the time my set up worked fine. It was just for or
>five frame from an entire shoot where this happened. It was,
>iirc, just backlighted scenes.

If you were using Single Servo (AF-S) AF mode, the shutter won't release unless the AF system has achieved AF lock.

>But the piddle flash should
>not have popped up in manual mode, correct?

Correct!
Good Luck and Enjoy your Nikons!

Best Regards,
Marty