Question about max flash shutter speed.

TheUndisputed · Jan 26, 2009

Is there a way to increase the flash sync speed? On my camera, it is only 1/200. It will shoot 1/240 just fine, but anything past that starts chopping off portions of the image.

beltzclan · Jan 26, 2009

Well what are you shooting? Because you can outdoors, shoot is aperture priority mode, and put your flash in high speed sync, and shoot at the max shutter speed of your camera.

That is of course if you are using an off camera flash like the sb600. You cannot do it with the in camera flash.

Big Mike · Jan 26, 2009

Not really. It's a physical limitation of the camera.

The shutter is made up of two curtains. The first one travels across the 'film plane' to open the shutter and the 2nd one follow at a specific time to close the shutter. The flash is set to fire at a point when the first curtain is fully open, before the 2nd curtain starts closing. At speeds higher than the max sync speed, the 2nd curtain starts closing before the first one is full open...so there is never really a point in time when the shutter is fully open...which is what the flash needs to illuminate the entire sensor.

If you have a dedicated flash, it might have a high speed sync option. Canon calls is HHS (not sure about Nikon). What this does, is pulse the light from the flash rather than fire one burst...allowing you to use flash at all shutter speeds. The trade off is a dramatically reduced flash range and increased battery consumption....so it's usually prefferd to stick with your max sync speed.

ANDS! · Jan 26, 2009

It's Flash Sync (denoted FP on an off-camera speedlight) mode. You need to check your manual to see what the D60 is capable of. If you are getting bars, then the flash you have is NOT communicating with the D60 to do as Mike pointed out and you will need to either work within the limitations of the camera, or fork out some dough and get an actual compatible flash unit.

TheUndisputed · Jan 26, 2009

ANDS! said:
It's Flash Sync (denoted FP on an off-camera speedlight) mode. You need to check your manual to see what the D60 is capable of. If you are getting bars, then the flash you have is NOT communicating with the D60 to do as Mike pointed out and you will need to either work within the limitations of the camera, or fork out some dough and get an actual compatible flash unit.

Thanks, that explains a lot, to everyone.

I quoted you ANDS because your description makes a whole lot of sense. The flash I am using is a generic Sunpak Universal flash. It isn't a nikon speedlight. This one was to my other camera, a 1975 Pentax K1000 35mm SLR (back when Pentax was owned by Asahi Optical company). I also noticed when I use my J-160 strobes, it works fine.

Thanks for the advice guys.

gsgary · Jan 27, 2009

TheUndisputed said:
Thanks, that explains a lot, to everyone.

I quoted you ANDS because your description makes a whole lot of sense. The flash I am using is a generic Sunpak Universal flash. It isn't a nikon speedlight. This one was to my other camera, a 1975 Pentax K1000 35mm SLR (back when Pentax was owned by Asahi Optical company). I also noticed when I use my J-160 strobes, it works fine.

Thanks for the advice guys.

You better check voltage of that flash because it could fry your camera