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speed light more than 1/250

franxter
Apprentice

in what speed light i can have more than 1/250th shutter speed, that is if i want to, and what are the advantage

6 REPLIES 6

Skirball
Authority

Your question is vague, so I'll take my best stab at it.

 

Your max sync speed depends on your camera.  Depending on what camera you're using your max sync speed will be somewhere around 1/180 (cough, seriously 6D?) and 1/250, for standard models.  Going above this the second shutter won't be clear of the frame and you'll get a bar across some portion of your image (if your shot is lit entirely by flash).  This is because the flash is relatively instantaneous compared to shutter speed (not necessarily at high power, but that's another discussion); unlike other light sources that esuch as the sun that are continuous and will expose the entire time the shutter is open.

 

The way around this is High Speed Sync (HSS), where the flash very rapidly flashes during the entire exposure time, so in effect it becomes a continuous light source.  The down side is that it is considerably less powerful.  The advantage, is simply that you can use your flash (speed lights without HSS simply won't work above your max sync speed).

 

All the full feature models of Canon flash (430, 580, 600) have this feature.  I'm not sure about the models below that, and third party models vary but they'll advertise if they do.

mine is canon 1000D

how is it vague, a pro guy can get it i guess 😕


@franxter wrote:


how is it vague, a pro guy can get it i guess 😕


How grateful.  Did I not answer your question?

not precisely 


@franxter wrote:

not precisely 


Then you should ask more precise questions...

 

No flash will allow you to use non-HSS flash at greater than your sync speed, since there is a physical limitation of your shutter curtain partially obsuring the sensor at shutter speeds higher than sync.  So your answer is, ANY HSS-capable flash will allow you to shoot at faster than sync speed, with the disadvantage of the flash power being reduced (it's just the nature of how HSS works).  

 

Think of it this way... imagine your flash is a container with a certain amount of light inside it.

 

When you take a photo at less than sync speed, the shutter curtain is completely open (sensor completely exposed) and the flash fires all of it's light at once, covering the entire sensor with one burst.  Therefore the sensor gets 100% of the light emitted by the flash.

 

When you take a photo at greater than sync speed, your sensor is never completely exposed all at once, since the second shutter curtain begins to close before the first curtain is completely open.  Therefore, HSS works by emitting multiple pulses of light over that time span to evenly light the sensor as the open area between the two shutter curtains moves across in front of it.  You lose power because much of the light emitted by the flash lands on the shutter curtains, and is blocked from reaching the sensor and increasing the exposure, therefore there is no way for 100% of the light emitted from the flash to reach your sensor.  

 

Some of the advantages of using HSS is to be able to reduce ambient light for creative effect while selectively lighting what you want to emphasize, or to be able to use large apertures in bright conditions (sunny day) for shallow depth of field when shooting something like portraits at 2pm in bright sunlight with fill flash.  

hsbn
Whiz

Most Canon external flash has High Speed Sync that will enable you to use camera shutter speed faster than the sync speed.

Some people use it to capture fast action image. I used it for portrait where I want to keep the aperture wide open (thus the speed is fast). HSS has its drawback too. You'll lose power.

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