Intermittent dark images

keep the Sb 800on the camera hot shoe and elichrome will trigger automati or use a slave unit

Hello..
Sporadic off camera flashes triggered with pocket wizards will not be as obtrusive as you may think. IMP, It's just as obtrusive as the onslaught of small digi cam flashes that usually occur..Cheerss!!....

Have you checked the flash mode?
I have no problems with the combination D300 SB-800.
I assume you don't have a picture if the flash goes off before the shutter open(?)
If you do check the menu e2 Flash shutter speed you can set it at a few seconds in spite of the fact that the flash sync (e1) is something reasonable like 1/250
The flash shutter speed is set to 1/60 in my camera...

Thats is odd.
When you hook everything up, do you turn on the flash last?
It sounds like the battery pack is giving the flash a different voltage then it should have causing incorrect readings and exposures.
I would send the pack back to Quantum(located in Ronkonkoma, NY) and have them check it.

Unless you are using high-end Nikon Speedlights with camera and flash set for Auto FP High-Speed Sync, your top flash sync shutter speed on the D80 is 1/200 second. The black band you are seeing at faster shutter speeds is because the second curtain of the shutter begins to close before the first curtain reaches the fully-open position (which is when the flash fires). The higher the shutter speed, the shorter the gap between first and second curtains. To get full exposure with flash, there must be an instant when the shutter is fully open -- first curtain completed travel, second curtain not started yet.

"As the speed increases the final image should get lighter" applies to ISO speed. Higher shutter speeds mean less light reaching the sensor, but that's not the cause of the black bands.

Definately a settings problem. The camera will only syncronize on one specific speed. Youe best bet is to use auto. For manual, you'll have to set the shutter speed at the sync speed.

Flash Sync Speed

up to 1/250 X-Sync Speed

up to 1/8000 FP High Speed Sync

Red-eye reduction
Red-eye reduction with slow sync
Rear-curtain sync
Slow sync
Front-curtain sync (normal) Flash Sync Modes

1) i-TTL: TTL flash control by 1,005-pixel RGB sensor, built-in flash, SB-800, SB-600, SB-400: i-TTL balanced fill-flash and standard i-TTL flash
2) AA (Auto Aperture-type) flash: Available with SB-800 used with CPU lens
3) Non-TTL Auto: Available with Speedlights such as SB-800, 28, 27, and 22S
4) Range-priority manual flash; available with SB-800 Flash Control

It might be you are not making a good contact on your camera and flash .

Are you using a cord to get the flash off the camera . If so the cord could be intermittent .

Some cameras have a slower shutter speed setting that will give you this affect. A tripod will be needed as shooting at slower speeds can cause blur from a shaky hand.

Series of images is the KEY. If the Power you set the SB-600 is HIGH it will take a LONGER time to recycle than the SB-800. If you try to take a photo before the SB-600 is ready you will get a dark image. The randomness you get is due to the time between shots. In general try to run remote flashes at a lower power so they recycle faster.

I like the SB-800 because it can take 5 cells. 5 cells can really make a difference in the recycle time (faster) The SB-600 only takes 4 cells so it is slower.

I have bought two Nikon D300 in the past ten days, the first camera had stuck pixels, 12 of them, red dots in every image. The second Nikon D300 is so noisey in every ISO other than 100... it is worthless to me at this point. Sharp as a tack, but so noisey, the sharpness is moot. I think I have a solution, but it will involve dumping a $164,000 Nikon equipment history over the past 30 years and embroidering new patches on my photo vest which read, CANON! The fact that I even have to consider such a move makes me nausious. Nikon has betrayed many of it's biggest fans, me being one of them. I don't know what happened at Nikon to allow them to fall so far behind Canon, who trailed Nikon for nearly 40 years, but SOMEBODY SHOULD BE FIRED!!!!