Having used wireless flash heads in a studio situation, I know how bulky they can be so I'd never considered using anything like that at home. After being unable to get particularly good results from the little pop-up flash on my camera, I decided to investigate hot shoe mounting flashguns instead. I was reading my Nikon D80 owner's manual (I was bored) when I noticed a menu setting for Wireless Flash. It turns out that the Nikon D80, D90, D200, D300 and D700 cameras can all wirelessly trigger a Nikon Speedlite flashgun when you take it off the hot shoe. So I decided to borrow one from the Jigsaw Treasure Trove and give it a try.

It's slightly tricky to understand the process, as half of the instructions are in thecamera manual and the other half are in the manual for the Speedlite. Luckily, Nikon have produced a PDF cheat sheet for each camera, which helps to clarify things. Basically, you set the camera's own pop-up flash to Commander Mode (very James Bond) and decide whether you want that flash to contribute to the lighting or not. Then you press two buttons on the Speedlite to enter its Custom Settings menu and switch the Wireless Mode on.

When you press the shutter button to take a picture, the pop-up fires a little pattern of pre-flashes, which tells the Speedlite to fire. If you set the pop-up flash to fire too, you get light from both in your picture. Otherwise, the pop-up produces just a tiny trigger flash without contributing any substantial light.

Flash compensation settings on the camera are sent to the Speedlite so that it can take them into consideration, and it can even narrow or widen its beam as you zoom in and out. It keeps you informed with a clever display of LEDs and optional beeps to make sure you know when it's ready to fire again, or if it has detected underexposure.

Unlike some other flash heads, the Speedlite is pretty easy to hold on to. It also comes with a sturdy plate so that you can stand it on a table or attach it to a tripod screw mount if you want to keep both hands on your camera. The trigger even worked when the flash was out of sight of the camera, I just couldn't fool it at all (and believe me, I tried).

I took lots of great pictures (my wife threatened to injure me after I'd been photographing her walking around the house for over an hour), with a much nicer tone and shadowing effect than usual. What's more, there was no red eye. The next day, I bought a Speedlite for myself. I'd recommend it to anyone with one of those cameras, especially schools that want to shed a bit more light on their photography. Speedlites are brilliant for the classroom because of their versatility - you can have them standing by as on-camera flashes and then use them as remote flash heads in the studio!

If you'd like to hear a bit more about any of our photography products, call us on 03332 409 300 or send an email to learning@jigsaw24.com

Tags: Speedlite , Nikon