Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I got similar results as CanonGirl with almost similar equipment. My camera is D800. My conclusion is only use Hypersync when taking landscape, sport actions pictures since the slight gradient will not be noticable. For taking portraits out in daylight, use ND filter to keep the even lighting across the subject.

ok guy's once again it might sound stupid to ask for that, but what about a firmware update of the E640 that have 1 more position than action or color, called "hyper" that would tell the IGBT not to try to get the shortest duration possible but the longest? i think the clue is that any full frame needs roughly 1/300 to trip both curtains across the frame so in this case if we could have a flash output that last exactly 1/200 s, that would cover the whole frame...

and voila ! sync up to the 1/8000s

if the design wont allow to do that, is it possible to manage the way that the capacitor discharge?

I mean, can you trigger on bank of 2 and 1/100s after trigger the 2 other ones?

like this it would double the length of the flash pulse and if you could do that on every capacitor, it would mean fout time longer duration which leads to only 160 ws of true power but for 4 time longer pulse.

that would be the killing trick = very fast flash pulse for normal sync up to 1/250
and very long flash pulse for hyper sync....

or maybe another path = is the voltage on the capacitor has anything to do with the discharge speed?

Even if we did, that would either mimic the Alien Bee B1600 discharge (and the associated problems described earlier in the thread), or cause the color temperature to vary wildly (still with the same problems as described).

Cap voltage does affect flash duration already, that is how AB and X and most other mono lights work.

One with Einsten and the Pocketwizards

Canon 5D at ISO160 f2.8 1/3200 :D :D :D

I do understand the problem of color temperature shift....
but for people like me who only shoot RAW on action sport in bright sun , a sync speed of 1/200 is just unacceptable because =

1) I cant use fast prime wide open
2) I need to underexpose almost 3 stops the ambient light over the flash not to have daylight motion blur sur impression... which make the pictures look ugly and shooted by an amateur.

I can fix a bad color temperature, but it's impossible to fix a motion blur picture, specially with a camera that doesn't allow rear curtain sync with studio strobe!

this is not a flash problem, it is a camera problem....

but you can make the things change, apparently nikon and canon can't understand this...

otherwise they would have kept developing sensor that are "Fast flash Sync friendly" instead of going into that megapixel war and ridiculous high iso race.
99% of the time IDGAF about high iso because i am not a reporter.... i create image with strobes....

If it is technically possible to make the duration the longest as possible, even if it gives a color shift of 3000°k, i would just love to have it ! and even if i would shoot jpeg, that is nothing that couldnt be fixed by buying a 35$ color chart....

Lets face reality 99% of people that do care about a 50°K shift for their work, have the money to buy Broncolor or Profoto or are just hair splitter.

As I say that should be a Third mode on the flash called "Hyper" that would only focus on one thing = get the more power at the longest duration. something like 1/100 or so.

if you do that, it means that you give the people the freedom to actually sync their camera all the way up to the 1/8000 or so...

believe me = if your flash can , on top of what it already does, do that, or even come close to that... nobody will give you sh*t for a color shift.... :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

one more thing :
if technically a fourth mode called " Ciné" could be doing 24/25/30 flash/second for 10 or 15 seconds even if it is something like 5 to 10 W/S, I can insure you that you will need to buy a bigger building to keep up with the demand....

on a single frame, a strobe at 5 w/s produce more light than a 4K flicker free HMI at full blast.....

now that everybody is shooting progressive video, it is only a succession of still image.

for a photographer spending 5k on light is already an investment.
for a digital cinematographer, 5K is what he normally spend on one day of light on any real life commercial shooting.

Just to be curious? What are you going to shoot with only 10 or 15 seconds of light? And how you are going to sync it with the camera shooting video? The flash port of the DSLR is no going to give you sync info for the flash. Plus 10 seconds is not even enough to say "action" and get talent going..... I don't know anyone that would by lights that can run for 10 seconds. Better keep making good flashes.

Get a Fuji X S1 for $600 and sync Einstein at 1/4000 leaf shutter speed to your hearts delight. No fooling with hyper sync, no black bars or color shifts and pretty darn good image quality IMHO, plus 26X zoom.

Ad to that the fantastic Fuji X100 :D :D :D

Unfortunately, subtract the X S1. I've been in direct contact with the Fuji CEO in Japan and they're going to discontinue the thing. I've been trying to get them to upgrade the firmware so they will fire multiple FPS with Einstein, but they're to busy with new silly cameras that won't sell to spend a few hours to do this.

Seems all the camera companies have the heads up the uhhh lenses!!!

And also the new full frame compact Sony RX1 :D :D :D