Auto slave flash

[Seachicken]

Sorry for the naive post, but I have no experience with Nikon flashes ! ..

I was reading about the SB-26 and it seems in slave mode, it will turn on when it sees the triggering flash turn on, and turn off when the triggering flash turns off.

Does this mean that if the camera is metering flash TTL, in effect it's metering both flashes TTL?

If so, can the flash be used effectively in this way if bounced off a wall? .. or is the sensor that triggers the slave not sensitive enough.. or is it the case that the bounced flash usually loses so much power that the triggering flash (I'm thinking the camera's onboard flash) becomes too strong and destroys the soft effect of the bounced flash.

[robinchee]

Using slaves that rely on flash is a hit a miss affair .. U really need to make sure the slave sensor can get hit by the flash. For more reliability, wireless slaves using radio signals is the way to go.

Unfortunately, the gap in price between flash slaves and radio slaves is really fantastic