High Speed Flash

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GGDrummer

Senior Member
Evening or morning all!

Ive noticed that my award winning D5500 has no HSS. Not sure how to ask this question. What I'd like to find out is if I can do high speed flash work considering a camera has no HSS? Are remote triggers or any wireless options capable of high speed flash or is it a case of no in camera HSS no high speed flash period?

Thanks in advance!
 
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WayneF

Senior Member
Absolutely YES (you can do high speed flash work with any camera).

First, speedlights are fast (regular camera flash is called Speedlights). Up close, at low power, speedlights are incredibly fast. 1/64 power level (maybe 3 feet at ISO 400) has a flash duration of maybe 1/30,000 second. This is used for high speed photography, milk drop spashes, bursting water balloons, hummingbird wings, etc. For routine bounce flash at 1/2 power, still about 1/1000 second duration. Speedlights stop motion and action.

And second, HSS is anything but fast. Speedlight is the first way to go, and HSS is the absolute last choice.

HSS is High Speed Sync, but it is NOT high speed flash. HSS becomes a continuous light (for the duration of the shutter travel), and continuous light (like sunlight) cannot stop motion at all. It merely allows any sync speed, removes all sync requirements (called High Speed Sync), so the camera shutter can be fast... But a fast camera shutter simply decimates continuous light. A 1/1000 second shutter sees only 1/1000 of the light that a 1 second shutter would see. Like sunlight, we can compensate by opening the aperture. This is what allows using f/2.8 in bright sunshine, with HSS flash too. But the HSS concept is ANYTHING BUT FAST. HSS does allow fast shutter, but a speedlight is faster than camera shutters can be.

In order for HSS to be continuous, it has to run at about 20% power level. This of course has less range than speedlights which can run at full power level.
Auto FP and HSS - What is it? is more about HSS.

The Nikon Commander (which the D5500 does not have) can trigger remote HSS flashes. The camera internal flash cannot do HSS, but it can be used as Commander to trigger HSS flashes (if the internal flash is disabled from contributing to the scene lighting).
 
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GGDrummer

Senior Member
Thanks for your reply Wayne. I'd read a few articles on Auto FP (HSS) but I couldn't work out whether it was needed in order of using an external Flash unit such as the YN-568Ex II and the Trigger 622c / Controller 622c-TX for e.g. So I guess what I'm understanding is that you can use any high speed flash if its independent and my objective should be setting the cameras settings to [FONT=Roboto, arial, sans-serif]accommodate the speed of the flash needed for the relative subject?

So much to learn!

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WayneF

Senior Member
GGDrummer said:
Thanks for your reply Wayne. I'd read a few articles on Auto FP (HSS) but I couldn't work out whether it was needed in order of using an external Flash unit such as the YN-568Ex II and the Trigger 622c / Controller 622c-TX for e.g. So I guess what I'm understanding is that you can use any high speed flash if its independent and my objective should be setting the cameras settings to accommodate the speed of the flash needed for the relative subject?

So much to learn!
Click to expand...

Yes, any regular camera flash is incredibly fast at lower power levels, called speedlight. If you have any sort of rotating fan in the house (even a computer exhaust fan), photograph it running fast, with TTL flash, at maybe ISO 400, and flash about 3 feet from the fan. A farther distance requires more flash power, which is not as fast, but is still quite fast. Speedight...

HSS requires different trigger actions at the camera (to cause it to become a continuous light). The Yongnuo YN568 has HSS capability, but it will require a camera that can do HSS. Nikon is calling this feature Auto FP, and it is on all the current models higher in price than the D3xxx and D5xxx. (typically, in the past too, same camera models that have the Commander will have HSS, and the Commander can do HSS too, but Commander is not required to do HSS).

My point was, HSS is certainly NOT high speed flash, but any regular camera flash is a speedlight which can be high speed flash (at lower power levels). That includes the YN568 when in regular speedlight mode, NOT in HSS mode. Studio flash units excepted, but any camera flashes (hot shoe flashes, and internal flashes) are Speedlights... incredibly fast at low power levels.

The YN568 manual, specs, page 66, shows flash duration of 1/200 second to 1/20000 second. Those two numbers mean at full power level and minimum power level.
 
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