D60 and Studio Flash

I am just getting started in some amateur studio work.

I am using a Canon D60 with 4 Alien Bee lights.

I am finding that I can only shoot with a shutter speed of less than 1/200 because of the high speed sync limitations.

Is this normal, or is there something I am not aware of?

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Pat Filice

Not to worry, Pat.... 1/200 is the D30/60 bodies' maximum flash sync speed. This speed is actually faster than some digital SLRs, and only slower than a few. The Nikon D1 syncs up to 1/500, for instance. (Handy for me, in fact, on a couple of occassions.)

Hi-speed flash sync is a proprietary technology available with the EX flash units, but NOT studio lights.

Good luck

M

Pat Filice said:

I am just getting started in some amateur studio work.

I am using a Canon D60 with 4 Alien Bee lights.

I am finding that I can only shoot with a shutter speed of less
than 1/200 because of the high speed sync limitations.

Is this normal, or is there something I am not aware of?

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Pat Filice

Click to expand...

Pat Filice said:

I am just getting started in some amateur studio work.

I am using a Canon D60 with 4 Alien Bee lights.

I am finding that I can only shoot with a shutter speed of less
than 1/200 because of the high speed sync limitations.

Is this normal, or is there something I am not aware of?

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Pat Filice

Click to expand...

Be warned that using the D60 with studio strobes can cause the camera to fry and it will not be repaired by Canon under warranty. As Canon themselves highly recommend, use a safe-sync adapter.

Get the Wein model HS (Cat. No. 990-550). You won't be sorry. It's only around $60... You can see it here:

http://www.saundersphoto.com/html/body_wn_accss.htm

Magnum

Even better, get the pocket wizard radio slaves. Yes, they're expensive, but it's so nice to not have cords running to and from your camera. And it will still sync at 1/200th.

BTW, you can still freeze action. At low power, those lights probably only flash for as low as 1/50,000th of a second. You can freeze a drop of water, a hummingbird, etc. With studio lights, as long as there's no ambient light, shutter speed doesn't really matter. In a dark room, you could use 1/15th of a second, and it would still stop the hummingbird.

Shutter only matters to sync, it's aperture that controls exposure. Now, if you have ambient light, (modeling lights, windows, etc) those will affect your exposure.

Russ

Gabriel Magno said:

Pat Filice said:

I am just getting started in some amateur studio work.

I am using a Canon D60 with 4 Alien Bee lights.

I am finding that I can only shoot with a shutter speed of less
than 1/200 because of the high speed sync limitations.

Is this normal, or is there something I am not aware of?

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Pat Filice

Click to expand...

Be warned that using the D60 with studio strobes can cause the
camera to fry and it will not be repaired by Canon under warranty.
As Canon themselves highly recommend, use a safe-sync adapter.

Get the Wein model HS (Cat. No. 990-550). You won't be sorry. It's
only around $60... You can see it here:

http://www.saundersphoto.com/html/body_wn_accss.htm

Magnum

Click to expand...

Pat Filice said:

I am finding that I can only shoot with a shutter speed of less
than 1/200 because of the high speed sync limitations.

Is this normal, or is there something I am not aware of?

Click to expand...

Pat,

Although you did not specifically say, I'm assuming you are concerned that your shutter speed does not sync at a high enough speed to eliminate the affect of the ambient light in your studio.

Since you'e shooting inside, a shutter speed of 1/200 will (most likely) be fast enough to negate any affect of most interior ambient lighting, assuming you're also shooting with an f-stop around f/8.0 or f/11.0.

I don't know what type of ambient lighting you have in your studio, but if you meter it at the f/stop you plan to use, you may find that it would require a shutter speed of 1/30, maybe even 1/15 to get a proper exposure from the ambient light alone. If you find this is the case, then using a shutter speed of 1/200 will certainly work fine.
Kind regards, Calvin Wilson

Gabriel,

Thanks for the good advice. I was not aware of the peril. For a mere $60, it is a precaution worth taking.

Thanks again.

Pat

Gabriel Magno said:

Pat Filice said:

I am just getting started in some amateur studio work.

I am using a Canon D60 with 4 Alien Bee lights.

I am finding that I can only shoot with a shutter speed of less
than 1/200 because of the high speed sync limitations.

Is this normal, or is there something I am not aware of?

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Pat Filice

Click to expand...

Be warned that using the D60 with studio strobes can cause the
camera to fry and it will not be repaired by Canon under warranty.
As Canon themselves highly recommend, use a safe-sync adapter.

Get the Wein model HS (Cat. No. 990-550). You won't be sorry. It's
only around $60... You can see it here:

http://www.saundersphoto.com/html/body_wn_accss.htm

Magnum

Click to expand...