FLASH FOR SIGMA FP? HELP

Hello good day! I am Cristian! New to this forum but have been reading for quite some time. First, I'm sorry for my English since I'm from Spain. I wanted to ask a question. I bought a sigma fp 2 weeks ago and I am very happy with it, I do a lot of studio photography (portrait) and I wanted to know what kind of flash do you use for sigma fp, whether it is flash or continuous light, I need to buy one urgently, I like to do portraits in studio with continuous light, but I wanted to know what would be the best option for this sigma fp. A hug

You effectively can't use a flash with the fp because its flash synchronization speed is limited to 1/30s [because of the camera's lack of a mechanical shutter].

Crissnowww said:

Hello good day! I am Cristian! New to this forum but have been reading for quite some time. First, I'm sorry for my English since I'm from Spain. I wanted to ask a question. I bought a sigma fp 2 weeks ago and I am very happy with it, I do a lot of studio photography (portrait) and I wanted to know what kind of flash do you use for sigma fp, whether it is flash or continuous light, I need to buy one urgently, I like to do portraits in studio with continuous light, but I wanted to know what would be the best option for this sigma fp. A hug

Click to expand...

Greetings Cristian and Good Day to you

Don't believe when you hear the FP or FP-L can't do flash, or anything else. It does in studio flash just fine. The flash sync is like the old days of film 1/60 of a second, but there are work arounds just like the old days. I been in the business 48 years and I can tell you not to believe all the junk you about this or that or whatever, it just trash talking.

As for flash or LEDs or Flood Lights they all work just fine just different color balance. I like flash, but my son who shoots the FP's for stills and video likes LED lights as the he can see what he's getting.

I'll go shoot some flash with the FP and up load the later today. Also try out the different color palette it's Great!!

Here are a few


Girls Sigma FP with fill flash


Old couple using Sigma FP and fill flash

So for these two images I used the FP and fill flash to brighten/ off set the strong natural backlighting

Have fun be safe

Roger J.

Roger said:

So for these two images I used the FP and fill flash to brighten/ off set the strong natural backlighting

Have fun be safe

Roger J.

Click to expand...

First image has a shutter speed of 1/1000th second. Second image has a shutter speed of 1/200th second, according to the EXIF data.

If the flash sync speed is 1/30th second, how can you get useful results at a faster shutter speed? I assume you are using a regular flash, not a constant LED light.

--
Tom Schum
"Beware of taking advice from anonymous wise men." Quote from Anon.

Tom Schum said:

Roger said:

So for these two images I used the FP and fill flash to brighten/ off set the strong natural backlighting

Have fun be safe

Roger J.

Click to expand...

First image has a shutter speed of 1/1000th second. Second image has a shutter speed of 1/200th second, according to the EXIF data.

Click to expand...

Yes that's correct

Tom Schum said:

If the flash sync speed is 1/30th second, how can you get useful results at a faster shutter speed?

Click to expand...

I tricked the camera, to be honest I can't remember, for the life of me I don't know but think I may have popped the flash the same time I tripped the shutter or maybe I had the led cube? I remember doing this before with the FP but I think I did a software upgrade sense then.

Tom Schum said:

I assume you are using a regular flash,

Click to expand...

I'm thinking I did,

not a constant LED light.

but I may of had a test LED cube.

I'm working on it, to get it to do it again. The strange thing was today it limited me to 1/30 shutter speed and I know before I had images at 1/60 and higher from months ago.

Roger J.

Greetings

Here are two snap shots done with flash, and yes the flash sync is 1/30 but it doesn't matter in this controlled environment. These are just snaps.




Son's girlfriend

Shot with Sigma FP at 1/30 sync using Vivitar 285 HV flash no, zero PP




Getting hair Dyed from old girlfriend

Shot with Sigma FP at 1/30 sync using a Sigma EF-500 DG Super no zero PP

So you can use flash just fine.

Have fun

Roger J.

Roger said:

Tom Schum said:

Roger said:

So for these two images I used the FP and fill flash to brighten/ off set the strong natural backlighting

Have fun be safe

Roger J.

Click to expand...

First image has a shutter speed of 1/1000th second. Second image has a shutter speed of 1/200th second, according to the EXIF data.

Click to expand...

Yes that's correct

Roger said:

If the flash sync speed is 1/30th second, how can you get useful results at a faster shutter speed?

Click to expand...

I tricked the camera, to be honest I can't remember, for the life of me I don't know but think I may have popped the flash the same time I tripped the shutter or maybe I had the led cube? I remember doing this before with the FP but I think I did a software upgrade sense then.

Roger said:

I assume you are using a regular flash,

Click to expand...

I'm thinking I did,

not a constant LED light.

but I may of had a test LED cube.

I'm working on it, to get it to do it again. The strange thing was today it limited me to 1/30 shutter speed and I know before I had images at 1/60 and higher from months ago.

Roger J.

Click to expand...

Maybe you're onto something! If you can get it to work again please post the magic procedure!

Roger said:

Greetings

Here are two snap shots done with flash, and yes the flash sync is 1/30 but it doesn't matter in this controlled environment. These are just snaps.


Son's girlfriend

Shot with Sigma FP at 1/30 sync using Vivitar 285 HV flash no, zero PP


Getting hair Dyed from old girlfriend

Shot with Sigma FP at 1/30 sync using a Sigma EF-500 DG Super no zero PP

So you can use flash just fine.

Have fun

Roger J.

Click to expand...

According to the manual, if you want to save DNG files the flash must sync at 1/15. I guess the above shots (which are fine) were saved as JPGs.

When I want to use flash, I use one of my other Sigma cameras. The fp is a great camera, but not for flash. I'm sure that sooner or later there will be an fp model with a more advanced (and expensive) sensor that allows faster shutter speeds with flash, as does the Nikon Z9.

Sigma's DP cameras have leaf shutters and are ideal for use with flash. So are Panasonic's various fixed lens cameras.

The dynamic range of the fp is so good that (provided you save raw files) I can't see any reason to use fill-in flash, but it would be nice to have more usable flash for indoor scenes like the two above.

Don Cox

D Cox said:

Roger said:

Greetings

Here are two snap shots done with flash, and yes the flash sync is 1/30 but it doesn't matter in this controlled environment. These are just snaps.


Son's girlfriend

Shot with Sigma FP at 1/30 sync using Vivitar 285 HV flash no, zero PP


Getting hair Dyed from old girlfriend

Shot with Sigma FP at 1/30 sync using a Sigma EF-500 DG Super no zero PP

So you can use flash just fine.

Have fun

Roger J.

Click to expand...

According to the manual, if you want to save DNG files the flash must sync at 1/15. I guess the above shots (which are fine) were saved as JPGs.

When I want to use flash, I use one of my other Sigma cameras. The fp is a great camera, but not for flash. I'm sure that sooner or later there will be an fp model with a more advanced (and expensive) sensor that allows faster shutter speeds with flash, as does the Nikon Z9.

Sigma's DP cameras have leaf shutters and are ideal for use with flash. So are Panasonic's various fixed lens cameras.

The dynamic range of the fp is so good that (provided you save raw files) I can't see any reason to use fill-in flash, but it would be nice to have more usable flash for indoor scenes like the two above.

Don Cox

Click to expand...

Hi Don

I know this for sure, I shot the images in DNG exported them in SPP and did save them as a JPEG so I could load them here in DPR for people to see.

I don't use flash that much anymore so it isn't and issue for me, and if I do I use the DP series or the SD series cameras.

The image from the FP is so good I use it most all the time now. For what ever reason the other camera that I have/tested do not have the same IQ. The FP is close to the Foveon or a CCD sensor which is very close to positive film. I also know the flash sync was 1/30 of a sec.

Also when using the Sigma flash EF-500 DG Super the flash and FP do excellent TTL.

Enjoy your day

Roger J.

I use a Sigma EF-630 indoor with my fp and it works at 1/30s if you set bit depth of raw to 12 bits - which is plenty.

I also use a manual Metz flash, but that only works if you also manually set the shutter speed to 1/30.

Johan Borg said:

I use a Sigma EF-630 indoor with my fp and it works at 1/30s if you set bit depth of raw to 12 bits - which is plenty.

I also use a manual Metz flash, but that only works if you also manually set the shutter speed to 1/30.

Click to expand...

Is it possible to manually set the shutter speed faster, or does the fp prevent this?

Tom Schum said:

Johan Borg said:

I use a Sigma EF-630 indoor with my fp and it works at 1/30s if you set bit depth of raw to 12 bits - which is plenty.

I also use a manual Metz flash, but that only works if you also manually set the shutter speed to 1/30.

Click to expand...

Is it possible to manually set the shutter speed faster, or does the fp prevent this?

Click to expand...

The flash only fires if the speed is 1/30 or slower, otherwise you would get banding since the read-out of the sensor is too slow without a physical shutter.

This isn't really an issue indoors since the flash itself is so quick that it freezes any movement, but effectively prevents use as fill light in bright daylight.

Johan Borg said:

Tom Schum said:

Johan Borg said:

I use a Sigma EF-630 indoor with my fp and it works at 1/30s if you set bit depth of raw to 12 bits - which is plenty.

I also use a manual Metz flash, but that only works if you also manually set the shutter speed to 1/30.

Click to expand...

Is it possible to manually set the shutter speed faster, or does the fp prevent this?

Click to expand...

The flash only fires if the speed is 1/30 or slower, otherwise you would get banding since the read-out of the sensor is too slow without a physical shutter.

This isn't really an issue indoors since the flash itself is so quick that it freezes any movement, but effectively prevents use as fill light in bright daylight.

Click to expand...

So, the camera enforces this 1/30 sec shutter speed for flash, and if you set it to a higher shutter speed, it disables flash. It will not support higher flash speeds at all, so if I want to have images with banding, I can't do it. Thanks for checking this.

I don't have a flash myself, so I can't check it.

There is also HSS (High Speed Sync) flash, which uses a long flash to eliminate banding. I don't know if Sigma has made the fp series compatible with HSS. I don't believe they have a Sigma branded HSS flash unit yet.

HSS might be a good idea that is almost obsolete these days, with global electronic shutter just over the horizon.

With HSS you could get good results with very high shutter speeds, as is done with high end Fuji models at least. With the fp L you would need the flash to keep firing for 1/10th second, and apparently with the fp you need it to keep firing for 1/30th second, because of sensor scan times. But if the flash did this you could use 1/500th second shutter speeds without banding.

Another setting in Fujis is LED light setting, in which an external LED light can be turned on during the exposure for fill light, and then turned off after the exposure. This would be useful similar to fill flash, and e-shutter speeds could be high.

Unfortunately the Sigma fp completely disables the flash contact at shutter speeds above 1/30th second. At least we know, now.

--
Tom Schum
"Beware of taking advice from anonymous wise men." Quote from Anon.

Do you think that the flash sigma ef-630 would be useful for photography in a portrait/fashion studio? Or would I need a higher speed?

Crissnowww said:

Do you think that the flash sigma ef-630 would be useful for photography in a portrait/fashion studio? Or would I need a higher speed?

Click to expand...

I used to have one. I used it with my sd Quattro. It worked very well for family shots but I found it a little bit heavy. In a studio application you might need more light, but it has a guide number of 63 at 135mm, or 46 at 50mm, not too bad. It will trigger other EF-630 units too.

It is listed as compatible with the fp and fp L:

Camera compatibility | Support | ELECTRONIC FLASH EF-630 | FLASH | Accessories | SIGMA Corporation (sigma-global.com)

There is also mention of HSS and there might be a "FP mode" in the flash itself:


EF-630 manual page 22: looks like HSS functionality exists


EF-630 manual page 27: fp functionality seems mysterious to me.

I didn't see any specification for the pulse length of the flash when operating in fp mode.

--
Tom Schum
"Beware of taking advice from anonymous wise men." Quote from Anon.