Will a d90 trigger a studio flash system using its commender mode?
Well, yes & no! The commander signal in Nikon’s CLS trigger also contains information on flash power, plus if its in TTL mode, it will also fire pre-flashes. If your studio flash has an optical slave mode, you COULD trigger the studio flashes from the on board flash, but you’d probably need it in manual mode (to prevent pre-flashes). You can dial the power right down though so that the flash will not contribute significantly to the image. If you don’t switch the pre-flashes off (by being in manual flash), the studio flashes may fire on the pre-flash & will not recharge in time for the main flash, so they’ll not be on full power when the shutter’s open. I use RF-602 triggers on my D300 (very reliable & because they’re radio not optical, no problems with line of sight or range). I use these to fire a combination of Nikon speedlights, third party speedlights AND studio flash all at the same time. I don’t bother with the CLS system these days, even when I’m using just the SB speedlights.
