Flash question

[Derek Zoolander]

strobist info: day 256 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

In Dustin's strobist info here, he says 1/32 at 200mm. What is the 200mm about?

 

[g-fi]

Focal length of his lens, which is listed in the camera info details. (I think)

 

[Big Mike]

In this case, I think he's referring to the zoom on the flash head. The new SB900 has the ability to zoom out far enough to cut down the spread of light to match the field of view of a 200mm lens.

Most other flash heads have the ability to zoom, some automatically along with the lens.

 

[KmH]

Good speedlights have a zoom head so the coverage of the light matches the focal length of the lens.

If you're at 18mm on the lens (wide angle) the light needs to be wide too.

If you've zoomed the lens to 100mm the speedlight needs to tighten the range of the light.

A Nikon SB-600 can zoom to 85mm, the SB-800 to 105mm and the SB-900 to 200mm.

 

[Moe]

The question has been answered, but looking at those photos really makes me want that 200mm f2.