So i shoot with a d70, and one of the great features (er, the only great feature) is the fast sync speed made possible by the hybrid mechanical/electronic shutter that they used on this camera....basically just to recap how it works (for those not familiar), at speeds above 1/250s, the front curtain opens at the beginning of the exposure, and instead of the rear curtain following, the sensor just turns off. So this allows you to actually sync with flash as fast as you want.....my question is, why didn't nikon carry this over to the rest of the line? when i shot canon there were times i'd be at iso 100, 1/250s, at like f11 just to knock the ambient down where i want, and then your flash power isn't worth crap (well with a small flash it's not)....i just think that a higher sync speed than 1/250 or pushed to 1/320 is very useful....why did nikon not keep it?
Since the D70, Nikon has really switched to using CMOS sensors in many of their cameras. I believe the ability to do what you describe is quite easy with a CCD, but not with a CMOS.
yeah but isn't Auto FP a function of the Flash unit? i.e. you can only do it with an iTTL flash.....i.e., not a pocketwizard, or a non dedicated flash unit, or if say you were using an sb-28, which doesn't fully work in TTL with newer digitals...BUT, i'm sure by the time i can afford a d700/d3, i'll be able to "splurge" and pick up an sb900....
Osai wrote:
What conditions are you shooting that require a faster sync speed? I've done fashion shoots at 1/20 and they weren't static poses.
Faster sync speeds are nice if your strobing in newer arenas where the ambient light levels are higher. You want to be at least 3 stops above ambient to prevent ghosting, but if the ambient is higher, and your sync speed can't go faster, then the only option is more flash power, which means thousands of dollars of added cost.
At the same time though, as new venues do typically have better light, along with better high ISO performance on newer bodies, the need for strobes becomes less and less.
With the D3 I can even shoot high school basketball natural light now, where years ago it had to be strobed to get halfway publishable results
Avi B wrote:
With higher sync speeds, you can do some nifty flash work in bright daylight, where you can make the background get dark, real dark
And its cheaper to buy a D70 than it is to buy 4 or more SB900's and use them in FP sync mode where they will indeed allow you to shooter faster than the sync speed, but at a much reduced output.
