Need a Flash!!

[JuanK]

Hi there, i'm die hard wildlife fan and i love to take pictures of animals but lately i've been taking pictures of sports (basketball). And i noticed that the pictures come out quiet blurry. I have an Canon EOS 3000n and i need to know on what setting do I need to put it in and if I need to do anything else.

Thanks
JC.

 

[ksmattfish]

More information about what you are doing would help. How far are you from your subject matter? Indoors or outdoors? What kind of lenses do you have? I'm not familiar with the 3000n; is it film or digital? Describe exactly what is going on and post some of the problem pics.

Sports photography and wildlife photography would be sort of similar I would think. You need a fast (big aperture) telephoto lens. Typically consumer zoom lenses are not very fast.

Use faster film. Most sports photogs I've spoken with are using Fuji 800.

You need a powerful flash. Flashes have guide numbers that tell you how powerful they are. Guide number divided by distance to subject equals f/stop. Guide numbers usually describe the power when using ISO 100 film. Make sure you know if it's in meters or feet to get the proper calculation. This means if you have a guide # 100 (in feet) flash, and your subject is 25 feet from you, you would need to use f/4 if using ISO 100 film. 800 film is three stops faster, so you could go up to /11. If you subject is 50 feet from you, with GN #100 and ISO 800 film you would need to use an aperture of f/5.6.

I just bought a Vivitar 285HV. It is a really nice, fairly powerful flash. It has a handy calculator dial on the side to help you figure all this stuff out. It is non-dedicated, which means it will work with any camera.

It's important to remember that the guys shooting for the big sports mags have awesome pro telephoto lenses that are fast like f/2 or f/2.8. They also are often hooked up to radio controlled flashes mounted on the ceilings of auditoriums. These flashes are hugely powerful. Next time you are watching a pro or college b-ball game try to catch the flashes. They are going off all the time, but we just ignore them. They light up the whole court.

Go KU Jayhawks!!! The season starts tonight!!

 

[flipmack]

what's the output voltage on the hotshoe of the Vivitar 285HV?

I'm thinking of purchasing either that or the Vivitar 283, however, since I own a digital camera (Sony DSC-D770), I don't want to purchase a flash that will wreak havoc on my cameras internal circuitry...and I've heard that the 283 will put out more than 300V per flash through the hotshoe!!!

 

[ksmattfish]

what's the output voltage on the hotshoe of the Vivitar 285HV?

I'm thinking of purchasing either that or the Vivitar 283, however, since I own a digital camera (Sony DSC-D770), I don't want to purchase a flash that will wreak havoc on my cameras internal circuitry...and I've heard that the 283 will put out more than 300V per flash through the hotshoe!!!

I have no idea, and there was no info listed in the instruction manual. I'd think that it would be similar to the 283. I believe that the "HV" stands for high voltage. I'm mostly using it with a Rolleiflex and a Pentax 67II, so I don't have to worry about voltage until it get up to welding strength.