Nice shots. I especially like the third one. How did you get the 1/2000 shutter speed with the Sunpak flash? Was that an estimate of the flash duration?
Yes, at full power I think the Sunpak 622 goes about 1/400 sec, so at 1/132 of full power it should be 132 times faster, or 1/52,800 of a second. I have read that the D70 flash-syncs at any speed, depending on the flash, so an external flash probably goes off just after the shutter opens. (except if you use rear-shutter sync - I think that's what it is called) when an external flash goes off just before the shutter closes.
My thinking is that it would work in either case, as long as close to full power is not used. With macro the short distance from the flash excludes that possibility, so I just go on shooting away.
Yes, officially, on the on-board flash. But these shots were taken at 1/2000 sec with my Sunpak. I promise. And I have read that with some external flashes flash-sync is unlimited. (up to 1/8000 sec) Which I think is the case with my Sunpak (yet untested), again, as long as the flash duration does not exceed that.
Ken Rockwell says under the sub-heading "Shutter:"
Quoting Ken Rockwell: "The D70 shares the same great shutter performance with the D1X, D1H and D1. The D70 probably shares a secret feature of the D1 series that with any external flash or studio strobe in manual mode that you can sync all the way up to 1/8,000, of course with a loss of light, in regular sync mode."
I believe Ken is talking about the camera manual exposure mode, and not the manual mode of the flash. What he means is that at 1/8000 you have only 1/16 the power available that you would have at 1/500 sec, because flash power is increased by the duration of the flash, and not the intensity of the flash. But for macro that is not going to be a problem often.
Amazing shot. It shows by comparison how fast a bee's wings are moving! I also like your description of your prime lenses.
The following experiment with my Canon G2 to see how changing the shutter speed with an external flash affects the image in daylight conditions, is an experiment even more relevant for macro-photography.
The auto-flash syncs perfectly up to maximum shutter speed of 1/1000 sec in the Canon G2. I'm wondering to how many higher-pixel prosumers this applies? The Olympus 8080? The largest change is in the effect of the ambient light. As you open up the shutter, the background gets lighter, up to the point where the ambient light starts over-exposing the subject, while the flash intensity changes very little.
The reverse is that with the D70 at a high shutter speed, you can darken the background even in sunlight conditions. This really applies even more to macro photography, as I've discovered with my D70, because the shorter usable flash duration stays enough to illuminate the subject as it only has to fire at macro-distances.
The D70 uses a ccd and for exposures over 1/250 it opens the shutter and turns the ccd on and off allowing 1/500 flash sync with metering, now if you don't care about metering you can tape over the contacts that the camera talks to the flash with or use a flash that doesn't have the contacts and you can flash sync to the full shutter speed of 1/8000.
But if you really want some stopping action use your flash since an SB-800 at 1/128 is 1/41600, and a more practical 1/32 is 1/17800 and just make up for the lower light output with more flashes and move them closer.
I haven't done many bugs in flight but I do Hummingbirds and freeze motion easily with 1/125 shutter speed and flash, and I probably could go lower.
Thanks for the info on the D70's ccd turning on and off for ultra-fast flash-sync. Can you or someone with experience on flash-photography tell us macro-newbies some more about freezing motion:
I would have expected the secondary blur of the wings visible in the ambient light at 1/125. Your background is lighted, so why isn't there any blur? Is it because the shutterspeed is so slow and the wings very thin? Looks like I don't need fast shutterspeed to semi-freeze a bee in flight ... ? And do you think I am right to think even a flash at 1/132 full power is not fast enough to freeze a bee's wings?
Bees' wings beat at 250 beats per second. A housefly's at 190 bps. And Martin's hummingbirds flap at up to a pedestrian 75 bps. If it is true what Martin says about the fastest flash duration being at 1/41,600th of a second, (it might be 3 times faster) a bee's wing moves 1/220th of an inch, or 0.1337 mm during the fastest strobe-flash. That looks right though, if you look at the amount of blur in my shots of flying bees. I'm going to try and get more photo's of flying bees today, at lower shutter speed of 1/125 as per Martin's technique with hummingbirds, and (if I am successful, will show it here. (in a new thread) I don't think it is going to work, though, because the bee's body will be blurred, since it usually moves forward in flight, especially when disturbed by my very close macro-lens, unlike a hummingbird, which hovers more often, especially if it is familiar with its feeder, (Martin).
I have to give you a tip on how to get bees in flight. Go to a bush where the flowers are very small, and very close together. The bees fly short distances between the flowers. You can anticipate where they will go, or just roughly track them through the lens. It took me only a few minutes of trying to get these two shots.
thanks for the comments. I used my Alien Bees set up.
No timer, no sensor. I was actually the dropper and my buddy clicked the shutter with his D70 @ 1/8000. I have a remote hot shoe sensor that triggers my lights. I understand that it is not possible to get these types of sync speeds with a "tethered" approach.
One last thing. I know you won't believe me, but this was the first attempt of the night. We tried a couple more, but realized that we hit the jackpot on the first try so we stopped. I then proceed to shoot the mode (sans milk) for her glamour portfolio.
