Am I being a plum?

[coupekid]

OK, this new flash gun of mine.....

I wanted to take some pictures using the flash today in the bright sunlight....just as a fill in, however, for some reason, I cant get a quicker shutter speed than 1/200.

Am I missing something here, I must being doing something wrong surely, every mode I tried only gave a maxium of 1/200 sec.

Can anyone advise, as i was after arounf 1/1000!

Thanks guys and gals.

[lumix]

Re: Am I being a plum?

OK, this new flash gun of mine.....

I wanted to take some pictures using the flash today in the bright sunlight....just as a fill in, however, for some reason, I cant get a quicker shutter speed than 1/200.

Am I missing something here, I must being doing something wrong surely, every mode I tried only gave a maxium of 1/200 sec.

Can anyone advise, as i was after arounf 1/1000!

Thanks guys and gals.

I guess 1/200 is the max. synchronization speed your camera will work with a flash. Higher speeds will just mean that the shutter will have closed before the flash discharges. Have a look in you hand book it should tell you what the synchronization speed is. Would be a wonderful camera if it could work a 1/1000

Reduce the output of your flash to balance the exposure.

PS just found this on the web.
As alluded to above, the "X-sync" speed of the 300D is 1/200-second. (This is the maximum shutter speed that can be used on the 300D when working with a non-dedicated, FP-capable speedlight.) When used with higher-powered studio strobe systems, Canon recommends a maximum shutter speed of 1/60-second or slower, to accommodate the time/intensity profile of such units

[Archangel]

Re: Am I being a plum?

OK, this new flash gun of mine.....

I wanted to take some pictures using the flash today in the bright sunlight....just as a fill in, however, for some reason, I cant get a quicker shutter speed than 1/200.

Am I missing something here, I must being doing something wrong surely, every mode I tried only gave a maxium of 1/200 sec.

Can anyone advise, as i was after arounf 1/1000!

Thanks guys and gals.

Ben,

I've done some shots of my niece jumping on a trumpet line at night (if this is the right word) with flash and shutter speeds up to 1/1000.
I had the camera set to Shutter Priority.

Sounds really strange that you can't manage this after trying all modes as you said.
Does this happening with the flashgun attached to the camera?
Does the same thing happen with the built in flash of the camera?
Anyway, I don't know how the 350D behaves but ry this: Set the camera to Shutter Priority, set the speed and then pop up the flash, or attach the flashgun, but not before.

[Stephen]

Re: Am I being a plum?

The focal plane shutter on a dSLR works in a different way to that on most small compact digicams. It is made up of a series of blinds that move across the screen.

Ron is absolutely right in what he says. They only sync with the flash up to certain speeds, beyond that the shutter has closed before the flash has finished discharging. In conditions where you rely on the flash ie dark conditions you would get a dark band across the image which is the part that was not exposed correctly when the shutter had closed before the flash had finished. Leaf shutters on the other hand will usually sync at any speed.

[Ian]

Re: Am I being a plum?

OK, this new flash gun of mine.....

I wanted to take some pictures using the flash today in the bright sunlight....just as a fill in, however, for some reason, I cant get a quicker shutter speed than 1/200.

Am I missing something here, I must being doing something wrong surely, every mode I tried only gave a maxium of 1/200 sec.

Can anyone advise, as i was after arounf 1/1000!

Thanks guys and gals.

From Memory you have the Sigma EF 500 DG ST flash? The much more expensive DG Super model has FP mode, which pulses the flash at a high frequency, though lower power/brightness, enabling it to sync at any shutter speed. I don't think the ST model has this feature, sadly.

As Stephen says, the normal maximum sync speed is low on SLR (and other focal plane shutter cameras) because it's quite a tough engineering feat to enable the blinds of the shutter to open fully and close any faster than around 1/200th second, though some higher spec pro cameras can go as high as 1/500th or thereabouts.

At shutter speeds faster than the maximum sync speed, the shutter no longer opens fully, but passes an opening across the film plane, exposing part of the frame as it goes by. A single fast burst of light from a standard flash will mean that only part of the frame will be exposed, while FP mode will flash many times as the shutter gap travels across the frame, exposing it evenly.

Hope that makes sense!

Ian

[coupekid]

Re: Am I being a plum?

From Memory you have the Sigma EF 500 DG ST flash? The much more expensive DG Super model has FP mode, which pulses the flash at a high frequency, though lower power/brightness, enabling it to sync at any shutter speed. I don't think the ST model has this feature, sadly.

As Stephen says, the normal maximum sync speed is low on SLR (and other focal plane shutter cameras) because it's quite a tough engineering feat to enable the blinds of the shutter to open fully and close any faster than around 1/200th second, though some higher spec pro cameras can go as high as 1/500th or thereabouts.

At shutter speeds faster than the maximum sync speed, the shutter no longer opens fully, but passes an opening across the film plane, exposing part of the frame as it goes by. A single fast burst of light from a standard flash will mean that only part of the frame will be exposed, while FP mode will flash many times as the shutter gap travels across the frame, exposing it evenly.

Hope that makes sense!

Ian

Yep, that makes sense.

OK, looks like I may have to compensate with the apperture size instead then.

Ah well, its a learning curve, but hopefully a fulfilling one.

Thanks guys!