High Speed Flash sync.

[jimmy156]

Hi all, quick question that google cant seem to answer for me.

Is the ability to have high speed flash sync controlled by the camera body or the flashgun? If its the latter can 3rd party flashes (specifically the Nissin Di622) peform this function?

Cheers, James

[SamHH]

It's a feature of the flash gun. If you look on the Nissin website, it doesn't say the 622 has it, but the 866 does.

[RobDickinson]

I have the 866, it can do it, I've never used it.

[jimmy156]

SamHH said:

It's a feature of the flash gun. If you look on the Nissin website, it doesn't say the 622 has it, but the 866 does.

Thanks for that Sam, i hadn't looked at the 866 spec only the 622, and hadnt seen a mention of it, but that clears it up .

Rob... I hadnt thought of it as a particulalry usefull feature until i was thinking about how i could have got better shots of red squirrels when i was at brownsea the other day. It was a bright sunny day but even so it was very dark in the shade of the forest (where all the squirrels were). Hence at 1600 ISO and with the lens wide open and under exposing by a stop i was still only getting shutter speeds of 250/sec, which wasnt realy quick enough for my tired arms, a 400mm lens and nippy little rodents!

Kinda brings me to another question actually, would the length and size of a 400mm zoom lens obstruct the average flash gun mounted on the hotshoe?

Edited by jimmy156 on Monday 25th October 19:15

[RobDickinson]

jimmy156 said:

Rob... I hadnt thought of it as a particulalry usefull feature until i was thinking about how i could have got better shots of red squirrels when i was at brownsea the other day. It was a bright sunny day but even so it was very dark in the shade of the forest (where all the squirrels were). Hence at 1600 ISO and with the lens wide open and under exposing by a stop i was still only getting shutter speeds of 250/sec, which wasnt realy quick enough for my tired arms, a 400mm lens and nippy little rodents!

Kinda brings me to another question actually, would the length and size of a 400mm zoom lens obstruct the average flash gun mounted on the hotshoe?

Not sure you'd do well with 400mm and HSS? 400mm is usualy quite a subject distance (tho wont be obscured I think) and HSS steals power like mad already.

You know with typical flash photography your usualy exposing for the background with the 'normal' shot and the flash will freeze the subject? i.e. you shouldnt need more than 1/250th for the background, as far as I understand it and not worry so much about cmera shake for the subject as the flash will light that in 1/8000th or whatever.

[jimmy156]

RobDickinson said:

jimmy156 said:

Rob... I hadnt thought of it as a particulalry usefull feature until i was thinking about how i could have got better shots of red squirrels when i was at brownsea the other day. It was a bright sunny day but even so it was very dark in the shade of the forest (where all the squirrels were). Hence at 1600 ISO and with the lens wide open and under exposing by a stop i was still only getting shutter speeds of 250/sec, which wasnt realy quick enough for my tired arms, a 400mm lens and nippy little rodents!

Kinda brings me to another question actually, would the length and size of a 400mm zoom lens obstruct the average flash gun mounted on the hotshoe?

Not sure you'd do well with 400mm and HSS? 400mm is usualy quite a subject distance (tho wont be obscured I think) and HSS steals power like mad already.

You know with typical flash photography your usualy exposing for the background with the 'normal' shot and the flash will freeze the subject? i.e. you shouldnt need more than 1/250th for the background, as far as I understand it and not worry so much about cmera shake for the subject as the flash will light that in 1/8000th or whatever.

You might be quite surprised how close you have to be to something small like a squirel to fill the frame even with a 400mm lens. The squirrels, for example, were only 6-7m away at times and still not close to filling the frame. I may be over estimating the power of a flash using HSS though.

I will admit i know very little about flash photography as it is not something i have ventured into many times before. I get your point though, maybe HSS wouldnt be necessary anyway.

[RobDickinson]

I've shot birds at 200mm with my Di866 with no HSS and usualy wirth falsh exp comp -.3-.7 or so.

You lock in the exposure for the background with 1/250th, aperture and ISO then use the flash to light the subject.

[Lambochick]

Unless you are hoping to include ambient lighting, why not just use a lower ISO and slightly smaller aperture, and rely purely on normal flash to light your subject? As the flash duration effectively becomes your shutter speed, and can be measured in the '000s of a second range, you shouldn't need to use High Speed Flash sync to get your shot.