Can I use the Nikon D3100’s built-in AF-assist lamp instead of my Yongnuo flash’s AF-assist light?

Asked 6/22/2012

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I use a Nikon D3100 with a Yongnuo YN467 speedlight. When the flash is mounted on the hot shoe, the flash’s AF-assist light takes over. I prefer the camera body’s built-in AF-assist lamp and would like to use that instead. Is there a way to make the camera use its own AF-assist lamp while the flash is attached?

nikon autofocus speedlight af-assist flash

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

14y ago

2 Answers

It may or may not help, but: if I turn the AF assist light off on an SB900, my D300 will use the built-in AF assist light, even with the SB900 attached. If your flash has the option to turn off it's AF assist light, that might do it for you.

Originally by user8473. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user8473

14y ago

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Usually, when a hot-shoe flash is attached, the camera expects the flash to provide AF-assist instead of the camera body lamp. If your flash has a setting to disable its AF-assist light, the camera may then fall back to the built-in AF-assist lamp. One user reports this works with a Nikon SB900 on a D300.

Another workaround is to block/disable the flash’s hot-shoe monitor/contact pin so the camera no longer recognizes it in the normal way. However, that also breaks TTL communication, and the flash will only fire at minimum power, making it practical only in manual flash mode.

So the best option is: check whether the Yongnuo YN467 lets you turn off its AF-assist lamp. If it does not, there is no clean way to force normal use of the camera’s own AF-assist lamp while keeping full TTL flash operation.

Can I use the Nikon D3100’s built-in AF-assist lamp instead of my Yongnuo flash’s AF-assist light?

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