flash me
hey i own a nikon d80
i was wondering if i bought a flash, does that give me more fps?
or i dont know what i'm talking about.
and i thought using a flash will give you cover for a certain distance but for example at a boxing match, u'd see flashes going off in the crowds far far from the ring.
how does the flash come into effect then?
i was wondering if i bought a flash, does that give me more fps?
or i dont know what i'm talking about.
and i thought using a flash will give you cover for a certain distance but for example at a boxing match, u'd see flashes going off in the crowds far far from the ring.
how does the flash come into effect then?
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Comments
Flashes go off at sporting events generally because people don't know how to use their camera. You see flashes go off at baseball games all the time where it is impossible for the flash to reach the subject of the photo. All flashes have a limited effective distance and are useless at sporting events (except in very limited circumstances).
I'm also not sure how a flash would help your FPS. It cannot fire as quickly as your camera shutter can open/close over a prolonged time.
A flash that has an autofocus assist light can speed up your operation in the dark by decreasing the autofocus time. Autofocus accuracy is generally also improved. The assist light is only valuable at short distances.
I've seen people using flash in a movie theater. Just because others do something doesn't mean they know what they are doing. Most of the time I would bet that people using flash at a distance do "not" get desirable results.
You can calculate the effective distance capabilities if you know the "Guide Number" (GN) of the flash.
If, for example, you have a flash with a GN of 120 (ft.) and if the distance to subject is 20 feet, then at ISO 100 you should be able to use f6 or so according to the formula:
GN/Distance = Aperture setting
(Note, if you use a GN designed for meters then you would also use meters to measure the distances. The results would be equivalent to the GN in feet and using ft. measurements.)
If you use an ISO of 200 instead, then you adjust the distance by an increase factor of 1.4. If you use ISO 400 the factor is 2, and at ISO 800 the factor is 2.8 (just like f-stops). ISO 1600 gives you the same effect as 4x the GN.
Remember that the flash output (incident) and the ambient light exposure need to be balanced according to your intentions. For fill light you only need some fraction of the ambient.
Using this formula you can see that the tiny little built-in light of most cameras does not give much aid at distance, unless you use a really high ISO and then the ambient exposure may still be too much.
Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
once again, thanx for the help
Interesting that I had a conversation with the door guy at an event this evening about which flash to get for his D80.
Your answers: The flash will generally slow down your effective FPS. This is due to the extra feedback (communication between camera and flash) needed for focus confirmation. With new batteries on a SB-800 at 1/128 manual power I can burst about 5-8 pics at a time if I'm in a continuous focus or manual focus mode. At this low power I'm only using a small fraction of the flash capacitor charge. Low power is for shorter distances and mild fill-light situations.
In a stadium, you will see thousands of point and shoot camera flashes go off. This is because those point and shooters are not adjusting anything on thier cameras and the Auto mode on those cameras will direct the camera to fire off a flash. They might get a good pic because a portion of the image is well illuminated from stadium/stage lights.
Get a mated flash for your camera that will communicate with the body. I this case a SB-600/800 (900 might be overkill).
The 800 has a higher guide number than the 600 (more light) but not necessarily what you need.
What do you want to shoot with it? Some ttl-fill light? Some nighttime shooting? People, larger groups? 1-2 people? Closer shots or stuff farther away.
What common exposure modes do you use on the D80? Answering these will allow others to help guide you?
If your eyes glaze over from this them just say what you liketo shoot and what you think you'd like to shoot if you had a flash unit.
Cheers!
David