Canon R5C HSS with Godox AD1200 Pro

[thomasbrookins]

Hi there. I’m sorry for the basic question but I’m having a hard time understanding & Google searches haven’t helped. I’m trying to shoot a dancer in my home freezing her motion. Is it possible to use the Godox AD1200 at higher speeds upwards of 1/1600 & if so in lamens terms, how can I do this? I don’t understand the ETTL thing. I’ve tried with a speed light & it’s baffling. I just want the flash to fire & capture high speed pics without blurring issues. I come from a continuous light production background but the ETTL Flash thing is really hurting my abilities. Does the AD1200 & correct trigger let me bypass ETTL & put it into manual? With my speed light it doesn’t me on tye R5C. Please help! Thanks for any help you all can give. 

[deebatman316]

The speedlite needs to be set to allow HSS. If not the camera won’t let you shoot over flash sync speed. It doesn’t matter if it’s set to Manual or E-TTL.

[thomasbrookins]

I know but my speed lights don’t work on manual. Only Ettl. It won’t let me shoot above 1/250 using an on or off camera speed light & trigger. Does the Godox ad1200 allow you to shoot manual with the R5C? How do you set up the Ad1200 to shoot over 1/200? I’m so confused & could just by a continuous 1200wh light but I was one I can take outside & use the batteries outdoors. I’m shooting a Dancer that can do amazing aerial maneuvers & there could be more than 1 dancer in the frame. I want to freeze it solid. I don’t want blurred eyes & finger tips. And it’ll likely be a backlit crazy shoot.  I’m so lost here. I need the speed.

[p4pictures]

To get high speed sync to work you need a suitable trigger and flash. The Godox XPro II is a suitable trigger, but make sure that it has the latest firmware in the trigger for maximal compatibility with the EOS R5C.

You need to set HSS on the trigger, and that will allow the camera to use faster shutter speeds and set the AD1200 to high speed mode. You can use HSS with manual and E-TTL flash exposure settings and it's straightforward to set this on the trigger, you may or may not be able to use the camera menus to make the change form E-TTL to M so it's best to use the trigger to do this and set HSS. 

The way HSS works is to change the flash from a very short duration single burst of light in to a longer duration short term continuous light lasting about 1/125th of a second. As a result the flash will no longer freeze the movement of a dancer, and that will have to be done with the shutter speed you choose. The power of the flash is effectively reduced when you increase the shutter speed, basically reducing by 1-stop for each 1-stop of shutter speed increase. The flash is like a short term continuous light with HSS.

[thomasbrookins]

Thank you. This has been everything I needed to hear. So since the sutter speed in increased, the flash will loose power so having a more powerful flash like the AD1200 is likely the best option? I think this is why I’m afraid to use a smaller version like the AD200 & AD600. My speed lights decreased so much it was barely noticeable on a shoot so did at the beach with allot of back lighting from the sun & it took so much work in post to get it to look better but I don’t love the edited look to it so I think I’ll buy the AD1200. 

[p4pictures]

A more powerful flash is the way forward, but remember if you get a flash that is 2x more powerful than another model, that means just 1-stop more shutter speed. In the past I have used multiple lights all part of the same group in a single modifier to get enough power. Also the greater distance between flash and subject the more power you need.

[thomasbrookins]

Thanks boss! This has been helpful. Looks like I’m coming back from NYC with an AD1200. lol! Cheers!