Studio strobes + D3 High speed sync mode

Dave Clee

Pretty new to the studio side of things. Fitted up the studio with 3 Elinchrom Style RX 600w strobes.

Camera is Nikon D3

I am finding that anything shot above 160th shutter starts to give the black band of the shutter curtain. I have the D3 set to Auto FP flash mode which I thought would at least give me the 250th shutter speed.

Trigger is the Elinchrom skyport setup, which should be good to 1/1000th.

Looks like 160th is the highest it will go without any sort of noticeable dark area on the edges.

Can the D3 not sync any higher than the claimed 250th ?

I thought maybe I was seeing a slight delay b/c of the wireless trigger. Is this possible?

Any of you studio gurus out there, your input is appreciated.

Cheers

Dave

pathfinder

High Speed synch requires the flash to make, not one, but a series of rapid flashes maintained continuously like a focal plane flash bulb, over about 1/50th of a second or so, so that a very brief focal plane shutter slit has light while it travels across the frame. Faster than 1/250th of a sec, most focal plane shutters are never fully open across the entire sensor, but are slits that cross in front of the sensor, so that a 1/1000 of a sec shutter speed may actually take 1/250th of a sec from beginning to end.


Most studio flashes do not provide high speed synch to my knowledge, Dave. Unless you are shooting with iris shutters that use x synch like many medium format cameras do. Focal plane shutters are different.

Many OEM flashes from Nikon do provide access to High Speed Synch of course, as does Canon for its cameras as well.

I suspect the wireless trigger may be contributing to some of the delay also - Try a pc cord and see if that helps.

ziggy53

pathfinder wrote:

... Most studio flashes do not provide high speed synch to my knowledge, Dave. Unless you are shooting with iris shutters that use x synch like many medium format cameras do. Focal plane shutters are different.

...

Additionally, yes, a wireless master/slave can induce a delay which will affect higher shutter speeds. FP mode is not appropriate for studio flash units.

Advanced digicams are often a better choice if you require very fast flash sync speeds. I have used both the Sony F828 and the Minolta DiMage A2 up to 1/800th with very good success and tested as high as 1/2000th, although the studio flash are not a very efficient choice at those speeds.

You can use multiple speedlights into a single light modifier, softbox or umbrella for instance, and retain HSS/FP mode as long as the master/slave combination supports it.

I suggest that in a controlled studio environment you try the Elinchrom's built-in optical slaves, triggered by an external flash on the camera set to lowest power and manual flash mode. You should be able to achieve x-sync (1/250th on the D3) even at full power with those units as their flash duration at full pop is only 1/2000th or so.

Dave Clee

Great info guys, thanks alot..

I am not sure I would need more than 1/200th in the studio, but as always it was something I didnt understand so wanted to get to the bottom of it.

Thanks again

Dave

ziggy53 wrote:

Additionally, yes, a wireless master/slave can induce a delay which will affect higher shutter speeds. FP mode is not appropriate for studio flash units.

Advanced digicams are often a better choice if you require very fast flash sync speeds. I have used both the Sony F828 and the Minolta DiMage A2 up to 1/800th with very good success and tested as high as 1/2000th, although the studio flash are not a very efficient choice at those speeds.

You can use multiple speedlights into a single light modifier, softbox or umbrella for instance, and retain HSS/FP mode as long as the master/slave combination supports it.

I suggest that in a controlled studio environment you try the Elinchrom's built-in optical slaves, triggered by an external flash on the camera set to lowest power and manual flash mode. You should be able to achieve x-sync (1/250th on the D3) even at full power with those units as their flash duration at full pop is only 1/2000th or so.