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	Introduction
»	The Man-Machine Interface
	The LCD and specs

THE MAN-MACHINE INTERFACE

I think the user interface (or "MMI" to make me sound more in) of this flash is really well thought through. Connected to an F-801/N8008 and up, this flash is normally a "no-brainer".

The Nikon SB-24 Speedlight

1. Speed of film
2. Aperture
3. Zoom head adjustment (adjusts from 24 to 85mm according to the lens mounted)
4. Turning the flash energy output on and off (in TTL mode)

Connected to my F5, I can adjust the front and rear-curtain sync on the camera directly. There is also the possibility to change this manually on the flash if your camera doesn't allow you to.

I used the SB-24 on my F-401 (N4004) for several years. The F-401 didn't send much of any control signals to the flash (the later F-401s had a bit "better control" of the flash), so I had to set the controls manually. This isn't such a big deal actually, since the buttons are few and logical. The settings I had to perform manually using the F-401, were mostly exactly the same as mentioned above, i.e. the film speed, aperture and the zoom of the head.

Actually pretty funny, but I still use the SB-24, both on my F5, on the F100 and the Coolpix 5000. Talk about compatibility.

CONTROL BUTTONS

You'll find the following control buttons/switches at the back of the flashlight:

Above of the LCD you'll find:

Rear/Front ("Normal") curtain sync slide switch.

A/M/Strobo/TTL slide switch.

Below the LCD you'll find:

Zoom select push button (increasing steps with 24, 28, 35, 50, 70 and 85 mm. Loops back to 24 at 85 mm).

(M)anual push button to either enable/disable the automatic flash intensity compensation or to select the flash intensity manually from 1/1 to 1/16 in 1/1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 or 1/16.

SEL push button has three functions:
1. To select the film speed when you're using something older/smaller than the F-401s.
2. To select the aperture when you're using an older camera. The manual setting of the film speed ranges from 6 to 6400 ISO. The steps are 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 20, 25, 32, 40, 50, 64, 80, 100, 125, 160, 200, 250, 320, 400, 500, 640, 800, 1000, 1250, 1600, 2000, 2500, 3200, 4000, 5000 and 6400 ISO.
3. To select the manual exposure compensation. Manual compensation can be done when the compensation symbol blinks. It starts to blink when you press the SEL button once (if your camera is in Matrix- or Center-Weighted metering mode) or if you're in manual mode.

Decrease value push button (used for manual setting of film speed and aperture). Automatically decreases value while held pressed down.

Increase value push button (used for manual setting of film speed and aperture). Automatically increases value while held pressed down.

LCD backlight push button on/off. Single press lights up the LCD backlight for 8 seconds. Press button a second time to turn backlight off.

Flash ready LED/Flash test push button.

Main power slide switch. Off/Standby/On. Only use the off and standby positions with new cameras - no need to use the on position. "Special standby feature" is activated by putting the main power switch in standby position while keeping the backlight button pressed. The LCD blinks on and off for 8 seconds to indicate that special standby is activated. In this mode, the capacitor for the flash is charged to full capacity once an hour.

When the main power switch is in standby mode, the unit will automatically turn off some two minutes after the camera metering system turns off.

CONNECTORS

Front: Accumulator connector for external power pack, such as the SD-7 battery pack.

Right hand side (seen from front):

TTL-Multi-Flash connector.
Connector for sync cable and for manual Multi-Flash mode.

Bottom: Standard Nikon flash shoe for flash trig and control signals.

Photo-sensor and AF-Illuminator

Front: Photo-sensor for automatic computer flash (the flash controls the energy output. Only used in mode A). IR-LED for AF-light in low-light situations (automatically turned on by camera). Note: the camera doesn't turn on the IR-LED if it's working in Continous AF-Servo or Manual mode. It automatically activates if you're using the F-401/F-401s.

SWITCH TO SELECT METER AND FEET

The display on the SB-24 can show the effective distance in either meter or feet. You find this little switch in the battery compartment.

Meter or feet? Use the small switch in the battery compartment to select this. Click on image for larger view.