nikons got theirs up to 500, why do you thikn canon kept it at 250? and has anyone ever thought "i sure wish i had a 500 sync"?

and on other news,

anyone has any leads to a used d20 for sale? and where do you get the best priced 30d nowadays?

thanks again.

i tried the 1/250 sync, and for me it's not that real useful. only in rare occasions would you use this. if you prefer darker background against your subject, or there is no other way to catch that motion faster (at low light and close range only of course), then this is it.

I wish my Canon DSLRs have faster sync speeds so I can preserve the power of my flash when shooting action or when hand holding. When I use HSS or FP mode, the power of the flash is diminished greatly.

Romy

i tried the 1/250 sync, and for me it's not that real useful. only in rare occasions would you use this. if you prefer darker background against your subject, or there is no other way to catch that motion faster (at low light and close range only of course), then this is it.

To some the requirement of higher flash sync is rare, but to others, like me, I use 1/500 and even higher when shooting outdoor. I can use a wider aperture, put less stress on my lights (make it recycle faster) and get the image I need. I have sucessfully sync at 1/1000 with my cam and monolights, so if I had only 1/250 I had to close down the aperture 2 stops and increase my monolights output to 4x. The aperture change alone (ex. from F4 to F8) would drasticaly change the effect of my images if I was trying for a blurred foreground and background).

That is why no matter how much I want to sell my this DSLR, I can't live without a fast flash sync. Ironicaly my other supposedly higher model cams will only do 1/250.

......sorry am not a Canon user, but thought of sharing my experience.

I can live with the 250 sync, I haven't seen the need to go beyond that yet. 250 is enough to capture human movement without the motion blur, anything beyond that I would just shoot in broad daylight.

That is why no matter how much I want to sell my this DSLR, I can't live without a fast flash sync. Ironicaly my other supposedly higher model cams will only do 1/250.

Ken, just curious, what's your other higher model camera that does only 1/250?

sir earl, ken is using a d200 and a d2x i think....he loves his 500 sync on his d70s

sir paul. ironically, thats the exact reason why you want a higher sync speed because it would let you use fill flash better. imagine being under harsh light and you need 500 shutter speed for proper exposure at f2.8. but since you need fill flash you are limited to 250 so you need to close your aperture, might be something you dont want to do.

in anycase, the higher sync speed will just give you more leeway.

oh yeah,this would also lead to your flash working doubly hard since you now have to pop a flash stronger to get the same light with a smaller aperture.

sir earl, ken is using a d200 and a d2x i think....he loves his 500 sync on his d70s

sir paul. ironically, thats the exact reason why you want a higher sync speed because it would let you use fill flash better. imagine being under harsh light and you need 500 shutter speed for proper exposure at f2.8. but since you need fill flash you are limited to 250 so you need to close your aperture, might be something you dont want to do.

in anycase, the higher sync speed will just give you more leeway.

oh yeah,this would also lead to your flash working doubly hard since you now have to pop a flash stronger to get the same light with a smaller aperture.

Hi there Christopher... Earl nalang... Wala ng Sir... :D

Anyway, I don't know about the Nikon D200 or the Canons for that matter; but I also use a D2X which also has the 1/250 maximum standard flash sync... I'm not actually bothered by the 1/250 thing here...

All I can say is... If you operate the flash in FP (focal plane) high-speed sync mode. The technology pulses the flash instead of emitting a single burst, illuminating the frame during the entire travel of the shutter curtains and eliminating the need for the flash to sync with a completely open shutter. In this flash mode the camera will fire at speeds up to 1/8000 seconds... This is true atleast for the D2X... Maybe the Canons are just as efficient with light that's why the 1/500 setting wasn't a necessity either... Now, in the case of the D70s which I also had (past tense)... It's an interesting camera to use... and maybe it did need the 1/500 sync coz of it's construction. This camera had both mechanical and electronic shutter and it was designed also to be a flash commander if one uses it in CLS... So thinking about this, the high flash sync speed must be more of a compensation than a plus right...:Grin:

Hi Christopher, kindly drop the sir with me as well :Grin:

Personally I haven't been in that situation yet, it really depends on what you're trying to shoot. Since I am stuck at 250, when more light is needed I would try to add another light source, a fixed light source. Typically it would be a nightmare in trying to get the right temperature setting in a mixed lighting setup if you are using film, but that handicap has been overcome somewhat when shooting in RAW.

When covering street events of people dancing and jumping and portability is required I just increase my flash 2 stops and it does the trick even at 250. I still have to test that when shooting faster subjects like a motorized racing events.

Higher flash sync in my case is not for freezing fast moving subjects nor is using high speed FP mode. Since I use external monolights, and use it for fashion and glamour shot.

Take this shot for example

http://www.photosbykengo.com/misc/DSC_4262.jpg

I did this at 1/800 at F7.1, if I was limited to a flash sync of 1/250 I would have no other choice but to close down my aperture to F13 to achieve a similar effect on the background, but since my subject was primarily lit by a flash, I now have to set my flash to output F13 (more or less 3.2x more), but since my flash is already set at 1/2 power there is no way I can set it to fire 3.2x more. So my other option is to use a stronger flash, but if one wasn't available, then the image and concept would be different.

By using Nikon's FP mode, I would be limited to light positions since FP mode only works when dedicated nikon flash is attatched via hot-shoe or off shoe cord. My example above used two flashes, one to the model's front left and the other to the model's right rear so it would be nearly impossible to have the flash set at the rear of model to be wired via dedicated off shoe cord.

Power is also greatly reduced as also noted by Romy when set to FP mode.

By using Nikon's FP mode, I would be limited to light positions since FP mode only works when dedicated nikon flash is attatched via hot-shoe or off shoe cord. My example above used two flashes, one to the model's front left and the other to the model's right rear so it would be nearly impossible to have the flash set at the rear of model to be wired via dedicated off shoe cord.

Power is also greatly reduced as also noted by Romy when set to FP mode.

Well, I'm not very familiar with the Canon system if they have something equivalent to Nikon's CLS so I'm not sure if I can answer this here; coz it will be totally irrelevant since we are in the Canon forum right. :) However, for the sake of consistency... Actually, the ideal really is to configure FP mode in camera and use a dedicated speedlight or use the SU800 commander and do AWL or CLS so that you won't be wired and have more freedom to play with your light setup... And it is correct the FP mode somehow reduces flash output but in this case you're not going to use only one speedlight right so basically you can still compensate... Yun nga lang ang catch... You have to get more speedlights or optimize your setup really well. :D

:Grin: Nice shot BTW Ken.