Know your sync
For the photographers reading my blog, I recommend a self-study of Know Your Sync, if you haven’t already.
I thought I would share my experience. It took less than 10 minutes to make all the shots, and not much longer to compile the resulting comparison photos. After shooting the umbrella specular, I grabbed a fake plant, put it on the floor, then put two different flashes through their paces both on and off camera.
Vivtar 285HV On vs Off Camera
Lumopro LP120 On vs Off Camera
On Camera: Vivitar vs LumoPro
Off Camera: Vivitar vs LumoPro
Summary:
My Nikon D60 can sync with both flashes on camera up to 1/250s with only a few pixels of shadow. With proper framing, I could even push to 1/320s.
However, off camera with Cactus v4, flash sync is much slower: The 285HV shows sync issues as low as 1/160s (only barely) and had a serious problem at 1/200. The LP120 had barely any impact at 1/200. I could probably push them to 1/250 as long as I framed my subject properly.
Other ideas not tested:
Built-in flash sync? No idea. What about triggering the LP120 optically with the built-in? I would imagine no better than 1/200s but I’d have to try it to be sure. What about consistency of sync speed –is it possible the off-camera 285HV at 1/200 was a fluke? Next time…
