Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Medium Format / Film / Digital Backs – and Large Sensor Photography => Topic started by: BobShaw on November 25, 2019, 09:40:39 pm

Title: Flash sync at 1/2000S with X1D and radio transmitters
Post by: BobShaw on November 25, 2019, 09:40:39 pm
I saw a question that actually raised some questions of my own on whether Elinchrom flash packs could accurately sync at 1/2000S using radio transmitters, or whether I needed cords.

So I just did some testing of the Elinchrom range of EL packs, Ranger packs and Quadra packs (all fairly old) at the maximum shutter speed of 1/2000 Sec using the Skyport trigger and both universal and RX plugin receivers in Speed Mode. I was very pleased to find they all gave a perfect image with no signs of darkened areas. Test was ISO 100, f16 1/2000S using XCD90 and X1D (1).

I then repeated the test at f3.2 and minimum flash power and there was some vignetting, but still no lines or other indicators of a sync problem.
Title: Re: Flash sync at 1/2000S with X1D and radio transmitters
Post by: UlfKrentz on November 26, 2019, 06:19:26 am
Well, the vignetting already is your sync "problem". Any wireless trigger will add a small amount of time as it needs the process the signal. Good to hear it seem to be close to a perfect solution. I suffered from heavy delay with my aged broncolor RFS system and Hassy snyc.
Title: Re: Flash sync at 1/2000S with X1D and radio transmitters
Post by: BobShaw on November 26, 2019, 06:38:47 pm
Well, the vignetting already is your sync "problem". Any wireless trigger will add a small amount of time as it needs the process the signal. Good to hear it seem to be close to a perfect solution. I suffered from heavy delay with my aged broncolor RFS system and Hassy snyc.
Thanks for your comment. I am actually toying with the idea of moving to Broncolor and have acquired a Pulso A4 pack to test the concept. I was looking for a trigger system but might try using an Elinchrom universal now.
Title: Re: Flash sync at 1/2000S with X1D and radio transmitters
Post by: UlfKrentz on November 27, 2019, 01:39:52 pm
Bob, nothing wrong with the Pulsos, they have been the workhorses of the 80ties, they just have an outdated electrical design. Honestly try to get hands on a GrafitA pack, its features (color consistency and short flash duration via IGBT cut-off) are close to the scoro and they pop up at very reasonable prices meanwhile.

Trigger delay has not really been a problem for us as we usually freeze motion through flash duration and don't have too much ambient light in studio anyway.

BTW, one thing to also keep in mind when using short shutter speeds is the fact that the flash duration of a studio pack is usually much longer (e.g. a 3200J pack in a classical design emits light in the range of 1/80 - 1/200s) so you cut off (and reduce) light with your shutter.

Cheers!
Title: Re: Flash sync at 1/2000S with X1D and radio transmitters
Post by: tcphoto1 on November 28, 2019, 09:47:02 am
I still use my Profoto Acute2 kit for lighting and have been thinking about experimenting with high sync. Considering the gear that I own, the PW flextt6 seems to be a transmitter that will enable my 5DIV’s to fire over the 1/200 sync speed. You may want to check it out, it is $185 and will work with my PW PlusX set.
Title: Re: Flash sync at 1/2000S with X1D and radio transmitters
Post by: BobShaw on November 28, 2019, 03:53:36 pm
I still use my Profoto Acute2 kit for lighting and have been thinking about experimenting with high sync. Considering the gear that I own, the PW flextt6 seems to be a transmitter that will enable my 5DIV’s to fire over the 1/200 sync speed. You may want to check it out, it is $185 and will work with my PW PlusX set.
That is not the same thing. What you are talking about is a camera with a focal plane shutter which is never fully open at high shutter speeds. The sync speed is 1/200S or longer. So to try and get around that they invented systems which fires multiple flashes to illuminate the sensor many times as the shutter window moves along. The other option is to have a really slow flash that delivers power over the entire period. The disadvantages of all of these systems are that the power varies over the time and that as it is divided there is effectively much less power. You get bands and don't get the full power of the flash

In medium format cameras with leaf shutters the shutter is fully open for the entire shutter duration, so one flash at the right time with deliver full power over the entire screen. You have a sync speed of in this case 1/2000S. So you can use a relatively low power flash to overpower the sun. That is one reason why we buy these cameras.