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Jeff,

I think i've seen that the D80 will support FP mode. Please varify this. If it dose than you need a flash that will support FP mode such as the SB800 if you want to use high shutter speeds. Be aware that you will louse power in FP mode.

Morris
--



http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/~morris/POD
 
Actually, I suspect with this particular flash the D70 may "sync" at every speed. Apparently the D80 auto sync speed limit is bypassed with this flash unit. It may also bypass the limit on the D70. (Similar effect of taping over a particular hot shoe contact.) However, flash output will be reduced once the shutter speed becomes shorter than the flash duration.

Of course check for voltage compatibilty between the flash and camera before trying any third party flash on a camera that is not specifically designed for that camera.
Mario Carbone said:
buy a d70s and you have sync till 1/500

--
----------------------------------------------------
Mario Carbone

Nikon D70s - Canon S2IS
http://www.chinetto.it/artegrafica
----------------------------------------------------
Click to expand...
 
Mark53 said:
Including myself!
Click to expand...
Well, in your case, it appeared to be to put people down. If I'm wrong, my apologies, but you came on strong, and with a negative attitude.
Mark53 said:
Someone said the EXIF showed a shutter speed of
1/320, higher than the D80 sync speed. Period. Do we all know
what sync speed means?
Click to expand...
Some of us do ;)

And by the end of this post, you will be able to join us.
Mark53 said:
It is the highest shutter speed where the
shutter opens completely as one "window" to expose the whole sensor
at once.
Click to expand...
The original poster had a D70. On D70 and D50, the mechanical shutter opens completely at any exposure speed, and an electronic shutter on the sensor fires after the blades are fully opened. The electronic shutter "closes" at the appropriate time, only then are the mechanical blades allowed to close.

So "what sync speed means" on D70 or D50 is an arbitrary value that Nikon decided is long enough to take in all the light from a variety of flashes. They chose 1/500 sec, which is longer than they need for Nikon speedlights (which are anywhere from a 1/800 to 1/1200 sec duration at full power, depending on the model and the vintage), pack and head studio strobes (which you do see even longer than 1/500 sec) and monolights (typically up over 1/2000 sec), and third party camera mounted or "potato masher" flashes, which sometimes are 1/500 sec at full power.

With monolights such as Jeff's "Alien Bees" with a 1/2000 sec duration, it's very common to use a D70 or D50 at 1/1000 sec shutter speed.

So, since D70 and D50 together account for several million cameras and 80% of all Nikon DSLR sales, it's the "both curtains open" definition (D2X, D200, D80) that's the aberration, and needs to be explained to people who are used to the "common" D70 or D50.

--
Normally, a signature this small can't open its own jumpgate.

Ciao! Joe

http://www.swissarmyfork.com
 
Try this:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1034&message=20380869
Mark53 said:
CBenson said:
Joe said he had a D70. He did.
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1034&message=20195395
Click to expand...
The OP, jeff000, states in this thread that he shot with a D80.
EXIF shows a D80. In the thread you referred to, which has nothing
to do with this shot he posted, he also says he just bought a D80.
HE DOES NOT HAVE A D70. Please show me where you are getting this
information.
Click to expand...
 
His question in this thread is why half his picture on his D80 is black. The answer still is, he exceeded the D80 maximum sync speed. The fact that his D70 worked a different way does not answer why, technically, his D80 shots are not looking right.
 
Many previous posters have identified your problem correctly as using shutter speeds too high for the D80. The only way to go faster than 1/200 is to use FP mode on the D80 (which requires either the sb 600 or 800).

Although fp will lower the flash power, you can use use the d80 and sb800(or sb600) in fp mode, in manual flash mode, and use off camera slave flashes up to 1/4000 sec. I have some old Vivitar 285 flashes which work in this manner. I presume the Alien Bees would too.Of couse you lose all the advantages of the Nikon CLS but if you really need the high power and short exposure...
 
Mark53 said:
The OP, jeff000, states in this thread that he shot with a D80.
EXIF shows a D80. In the thread you referred to, which has nothing
to do with this shot he posted, he also says he just bought a D80.
HE DOES NOT HAVE A D70. Please show me where you are getting this
information.
Click to expand...
Jeff000 said:
I would go over the max sync with my d70 all the time without
problems with a strobe.
Click to expand...
I do infact have a D70, its sitting right beside the D80.
I have a SB800 too, its sitting right in front of the two cameras.

I do not use the SB800 for studio type shots, because well its just a pain in the ass to use like that.

I use 2 Alien Bees B800's, both have large soft boxes.
I used to shoot much faster shutter with my D70 then I can with my D80.

I am not interested in shooting faster with only the SB800, as well it doesnt help me at all.
My question is why cant I shoot faster with the strobe?

I could go outside and shoot the sun at 1/8000 and get a full picture. well it will be dark even being the sun...

But if i shoot with the strobe which is 1/2000 durration shouldnt any shutter at under 1/2000 be the full frame? I mean even taking a picture of the strobe gives me the 1/3 black. Just doesnt make sence to me.
 
And why does the D70 have a higher sync then "pro" cameras like the D200 and even D2X? doesnt make sence to me.
 
Jeff000 said:
I could go outside and shoot the sun at 1/8000 and get a full
picture. well it will be dark even being the sun...
But if i shoot with the strobe which is 1/2000 durration shouldnt
any shutter at under 1/2000 be the full frame? I mean even taking a
picture of the strobe gives me the 1/3 black. Just doesnt make
sence to me.
Click to expand...
The sun is a continuous light source, so even though only part of the frame is being exposed at any given point in time with a shutter speed of 1/8000, as long as the light keeps coming in the whole picture will look fine.
 
The D70 and D50 have what are called interline CCDs. These type of CCDs have extra circuitry built into them which allows them to turn on/off light collection. In other words they have an electronic shutter. Being electronic, the shutter can be extremely fast.

Mechanical shutters are not fast. Typically, they can stay completely open to expose the flash to the entire frame no shorter than 1/250s. They perform a trick to achieve the effect of shorter exposures. They form a slit and run it across the frame. The shorter the exposure the smaller the slit. So the short duration flash can then only affect a section of the frame.

Unlike mechanical shutters electronic shutters can uniformly expose the entire frame in an instant. This is why you see no dark area when using your D70 at high shutter speeds. It captures the flash's output over the entire frame. If the shutter duration is shorter than the flash duration it will not collect the entire output of the flash, but that output will still be across the entire frame. (In this case the flash is becoming more like a continous light source.)

When one tries to freeze a very fast rotating or moving object with a mechanical shutter the object is often warped.

There is one disadvantage with Interline CCDs. The extra electronics take up valuable light gathering real estate on the chip. It is believed that Nikon made the decision to go with a CCD that does not have the electronic shutter circuitry in order to maintain per pixel quality at the higher 10 megapixel density. Or maybe they just wanted to go to 10 megapixels and their CCD supplier(s) didn't have an interline CCD ready.

Here are some links to further information.

http://www.photozone.de/3Technology/flashtec4.htm

http://www.photozone.de/3Technology/flashtec5.htm

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1034&message=20240085

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1034&message=19637676

Steve
Jeff000 said:
And why does the D70 have a higher sync then "pro" cameras like the
D200 and even D2X? doesnt make sence to me.
Click to expand...
 
Mark53 said:
Joseph S. Wisniewski said:
The original poster had a D70.
Click to expand...
No he doesn't. I stand by my original post.
Click to expand...
Yes, he does.

"I would go over the max sync with my d70 all the time without problems with a strobe."

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1034&message=20380869

He was confused about his inability to use sync speeds beyond the rated speed of the D80, because he uses speeds beyond the rated speed of his D70 "all of the time".

Many people do. There are frequent posts about how useful this is with studio strobes, and all sorts of techniques for doing it. Here's just two of the often recurring themes:

1) People using "A" mode on an SB-800 instead of "TTL", taping over a contact on th flash, and shooting outdoors in full sun with effective fill flash at apertures like f4 and 1/2000 sec shutter speed, or manual mode f2 and 1/8000 sec. On a D70, that combination gives you about 1/4 flash power, 16x the flash power of "FP" mode (which is only good to about 1/64 power at 1/8000 sec).

2) People using manual mode flash and shutter speeds up to 1/8000 sec to eliminate ghosts on high speed photographs.

--
Normally, a signature this small can't open its own jumpgate.

Ciao! Joe

http://www.swissarmyfork.com
 
Mark53 said:
His question in this thread is why half his picture on his D80 is
black. The answer still is, he exceeded the D80 maximum sync
speed. The fact that his D70 worked a different way does not
answer why, technically, his D80 shots are not looking right.
Click to expand...
And several people answered that question, politely and accurately.

You asked two entirely different questions: "Why are people still answering?" and "Do we all know what sync speed means?"

Although you did not actually ask those questions in the spirit of actually wanting an answer, I explained to you, quite patiently, the answers to both of your questions:

We don't "all know what sync speed means". Those who grew up with D70 or D50 (the majority on this, the "Nikon D80/D70/D50" forum) know that max sync is how others (including myself) explained it, and this causes confusion for D80 owners who came up from D70 or D50.

And "people are still answering" because the issue is so confusing to so many and therefore, worthy of discussion.

--
Normally, a signature this small can't open its own jumpgate.

Ciao! Joe

http://www.swissarmyfork.com
 
Why do you shoot at such high speed with your studio strobes?

If the studio strobes are your light source why not just set the shutter speed down to 1/200s (or lower) and let the strobes stop any action?

If you have ambient or continuous lighting which contributes to the exposure I can see the need to keep the exposure short, but I'd think your Alien Bees would be the dominant light source.

Steve
 
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