Electronic Shutters: kind of HSS with any old (studio-) flash sometime in the near future ?

[Bernd B.]

Hi all,

pretty interesting to see all the HSS flashes coming up, like Protofo B1 and B2, allowing to shoot with flash even at 1/8000th of a second.

Having lots of older studio and location flashes from Balcar and Profoto, I wonder whether to invest in these new devices now, or to wait a few more years and hope for electronic shutters synchronizing flash at any shutter speed, like I can already do it with my Hasselblad H leaf shutter.

I know there was a single camera model far away from being capable of professional tasks which was equipped with such an electronic shutter. But in the professional field there is nothing showing up.

I want to point out that I don´t want to mees around with hyper sync.

The introduction of such an invention would immediately turn some of the new expensive flash gadgets (2000,- USD for a 250J Pack - sic!) into overpriced and outdated toys and thus I´d have burned money.

What do you think? What co you know?

Best,

Bernd

[synn]

The "1/8000" sync that these devices claim is not a real flash sync. It is the same as hypersync with Pocketwizards. It will not arrest motion like a fast flash pulse along with a real shutter sync. The flash pulse acts pretty much like a continuous light through the duration of the exposure. You will be able to kill the ambient light, but your subject won't have motion arrested. You will also lose a lot of flash power using this.

As of now, the only way to achieve faster true sync speeds is with a leaf shutter. The fastest you can go is 1/1600 with Phamiyas and Profoto Airs. However, this is just an academic limit and not very useful in real life. In my experience, about 1/800 is the sweet spot.

As and when there are cameras with a fully electronic global shutter and flash sync at any speed, your existing flashes will work just fine, provided they have fast enough pulses to suit your needs and capable triggers are used (Such as PWs or Profoto Airs, which I suespect you already are using).

[dmward]

High Speed Sync is the camera/flash manufacturers name for FP sync with flat burn flash bulbs. It uses a very high frequency strobing of the flash tube to generate a consistent light output during the duration of the shutter slit travel across the image plane. The reduced luminosity is the result of having to slit reducing the time the light can strike a particular photo site along with the need to expend the stored energy in the capacitor(s) over a longer period of time.

Hyper sync (Pocket Wizard marketing term) relies on the tail of the single flash of light to illuminate the image plane during the slit travel.

Both turn the flash into a short duration constant light source, which means that the shutter speed now is responsible for stopping any movement.

Current implementations of electronic (silent) shutters on Sony A7xx and Fuji XT-1 do not support flash well. I haven't bothered using them but from reports on various fora they have their own image plane travel time limitations which appears to cause some distortion when movement is involved, similar to the slit travel across the image plane with a focal plane shutter.

[AlterEgo]

The fastest you can go is 1/1600 with Phamiyas and Profoto Airs.

I was thinking my P&S can do for example 1/2000 for less than $100 for both camera and flash w/o HSS (I will take used ones), no ?

[MarkL]

In most cases the usefulness is high speed sync is very overstated, it is not a magical fix, if you shutter speed is faster than your flash duration you are just taking chunks out of your flash exposure. Also be aware most manufacturers quote t.5 times and not t.1.

[AlterEgo]

In most cases the usefulness is high speed sync is very overstated, it is not a magical fix, if you shutter speed is faster than your flash duration you are just taking chunks out of your flash exposure. Also be aware most manufacturers quote t.5 times and not t.1.

you can have many strobes to compensate for the lost chunks ...

[dmward]

In most cases the usefulness is high speed sync is very overstated, it is not a magical fix, if you shutter speed is faster than your flash duration you are just taking chunks out of your flash exposure. Also be aware most manufacturers quote t.5 times and not t.1.

There are those that want it to be a panacea. Its a tool, and useful when one understands its limitations and its strengths.

In addition to the t.5 t.1 power ambiguity there is the consideration that any strobe or speedlite capable of HSS or TTL uses IGBT power control which means that the only time there is any tail on the light output is at full power. All power settings below full power shorten flash duration.