Is flash sync speed important?

Senor Hound · Jun 5, 2008

So most cameras out there (in my range) have a flash sync of about 1/180 to 1/250. But the Nikons have a crazy fast flash sync of 1/500!!! But what does this mean? I know what flash sync is, but what sort of situations would a high flash sync be an advantage? The only thing I could think of was something like a beach or snow? I just don't see it as that big of a deal if it can only be used in the limited situations I think it can.

Someone help a guy out and shed some insight in on this?

Socrates · Jun 5, 2008

Senor Hound said:
So most cameras out there (in my range) have a flash sync of about 1/180 to 1/250. But the Nikons have a crazy fast flash sync of 1/500!!! But what does this mean? I know what flash sync is, but what sort of situations would a high flash sync be an advantage? The only thing I could think of was something like a beach or snow? I just don't see it as that big of a deal if it can only be used in the limited situations I think it can.

Someone help a guy out and shed some insight in on this?

Fill-flash outdoors, especially when you want to use a large aperture to blur the background.

JimmyO · Jun 5, 2008

And actually very few nikons have it.
I find it very nice for when shooting sports/action, and also, like socrates said, for fill on a bright day

Socrates · Jun 5, 2008

JimmyO said:
And actually very few nikons have it.
I find it very nice for when shooting sports/action, and also, like socrates said, for fill on a bright day

For fill-flash, I've found the FP mode (D80/SB600) to be quite useful. The flash distance drops dramatically but it still does the job. FP was common with long-burning bulbs many years ago.

Garbz · Jun 5, 2008

The only Nikon that has it is the D40/D60. And the reason is the shutter is only used to prevent bloom on readout. The shutter opens, and THEN the sensor is turned on, and off, then the shutter is closed for the read out. Very high end point and shoot style behaviour.

Every other Nikon drags the shutter curtain across a running sensor (like film does) limiting the max sync to 1/250th

As to why, this scene could have benefited from 1/500th to make the background darker, or to allow me to reduce the flash power. (reduce aperture 1 stop, reduce flash power one stop, increase shutter speed one stop gives an identical picture since flash is not dependant on shutter speed, and saves battery life and boosts recycle time)

dEARlEADER · Jun 5, 2008

Garbz said:
The only Nikon that has it is the D40/D60. And the reason is the shutter is only used to prevent bloom on readout. The shutter opens, and THEN the sensor is turned on, and off, then the shutter is closed for the read out. Very high end point and shoot style behaviour.

Every other Nikon drags the shutter curtain across a running sensor (like film does) limiting the max sync to 1/250th

As to why, this scene could have benefited from 1/500th to make the background darker, or to allow me to reduce the flash power. (reduce aperture 1 stop, reduce flash power one stop, increase shutter speed one stop gives an identical picture since flash is not dependant on shutter speed, and saves battery life and boosts recycle time)

Almost..... The D60 is not including in th 1/500 group...... D60 is 1/200.....

Kegger · Jun 5, 2008

The D70 is the other Nikon with 1/500th sync speed. Comes in handy a lot of the time.

JimmyO · Jun 5, 2008

This is one of the reasons i love my D1h

Village Idiot · Jun 5, 2008

Garbz said:
The only Nikon that has it is the D40/D60. And the reason is the shutter is only used to prevent bloom on readout. The shutter opens, and THEN the sensor is turned on, and off, then the shutter is closed for the read out. Very high end point and shoot style behaviour.

Every other Nikon drags the shutter curtain across a running sensor (like film does) limiting the max sync to 1/250th

As to why, this scene could have benefited from 1/500th to make the background darker, or to allow me to reduce the flash power. (reduce aperture 1 stop, reduce flash power one stop, increase shutter speed one stop gives an identical picture since flash is not dependant on shutter speed, and saves battery life and boosts recycle time)

The d40 (not the d40x), d70, and d50 (maybe even the d70s) and the Canon 1D can do this. In fact, the x xync is not limited to 1/500, and can actually sync all the way up to the camera's max shutter speed. Try it.

Benefits? You can easily overpower the sun if your flash is powerful enough. It's like having unlimited access to ND filters with a standard mechanical shutter.

As far as Nikon and Canon, I believe any of their cameras with a CMOS sensor has a mechanical shutter and is limited to 1/200-1/250 depending on the sensor size where as the CCD sensors are not limited.

This won't work firing a flash from on the camera's hotshoe or using Commander Mode iirc. You have to use something like a pc cord or wireless trigger, optical, radio, or otherwise.

Big Mike · Jun 5, 2008

Canon Flash units (the top ones anyway) have HSS (High Speed Sync). I assume that Nikon has something similar (FP mode?)

That that does, is pulse the flash, rather than use one burst of light. This allows for the use of any shutter speed but really reduces the effective range.

Mav · Jun 5, 2008

Fast flash sync is critical for me because I get a lot of direct sunlight in my house that I need to be able to balance out. A faster shutter speed with flash means less natural light and more flash lighting. It also makes a huge difference outdoors in mid-day sun. That creates deep shadows on people's faces, and the way you balance that out is with very fast flash sync. It also lets you use a larger aperture to keep backgrounds out of focus, and it lets you stop quicker moving subjects thanks to the fast shutter speed. 1/200 or 1/250s is too slow for a lot of the stuff I shoot.

The most common way of getting around this if you don't have fast enough flash sync for something is to get an assistant and have them hold a reflector, but that won't work for all things. My D40 gets a lot of use and a lot of photos that my D80 wouldn't get just because of the flash sync issue.

Mav · Jun 5, 2008

Big Mike said:
Canon Flash units (the top ones anyway) have HSS (High Speed Sync). I assume that Nikon has something similar (FP mode?)

That that does, is pulse the flash, rather than use one burst of light. This allows for the use of any shutter speed but really reduces the effective range.

Yeah FP mode is what it is on the Nikons, available with the SB-600 or 800 flashes. And yes, it's very inefficient.

Socrates · Jun 5, 2008

Big Mike said:
Canon Flash units (the top ones anyway) have HSS (High Speed Sync). I assume that Nikon has something similar (FP mode?)

That that does, is pulse the flash, rather than use one burst of light. This allows for the use of any shutter speed but really reduces the effective range.

The original term is FP (from Focal Plane).

Before electronic flash existed, high-end SLRs had two bulb sync outputs. "M" was for the inexpensive regular M-class bulbs and the sync timing was similar to that with today's electronic flash. "FP" sync was for FB bulbs, designed specifically for use with Focal Plane shutters. They were long-burning bulbs (1/15 second, as I recall) with a flat output during the burn. The flash would be triggered and the burn would begin before the shutter opens. The bulb would burn long enough so that the shutter would close before the bulb finished burning. The effect was similar to ambient lighting but, of course, wouldn't work too well with excessively long exposures.