Feeling perturbed with flash support on camera

So I tried to photograph raindrops today and I found out that the camera doesn't support high speed flash? I'm using an SB400 and it could only go up to 1/200th of a second which I thought was kind of weak. Is there any way to freeze motion with a flash on this camera? It's something I've not gotten into and want to try but I feel like the camera doesn't support the shutter speeds needed to start to freeze any sort of motion. :uncomfortableness:

Not sure with your flash but the duration of the flash is the key here and not shutter speed. Flash duration 1/300 sec. at M 1/1 (full) output. (Approx.)

that makes sense but i was hoping for more info regarding if this technique was possible with my current gear. the sb400 isn't let's say...a good flash as it has no options other than off/on and a few in-camera tweaks that don't really do too much regarding speed of flash, sync, etc. I couldn't get it to go over 1/200 sec. and i think this is a camera limitation more than anything.

Isn't there an FP setting with the camera that would allow you to use a faster shutter speed? I don't have your camera model, but look in the manual for flash SP mode. But maybe this mode only applies to SB-600 and up...

Here is one I took a while back with the camera set to manual and sb600...Nikon D300...aperture F7....shutter 1/125 sec...focal length 28mm...lens used 28-70mm F2.8 ISO 200...rain and hail

FP setting? I've not heard of that before. Is that "Flash Priority"? :/
I'm not seeing anything regarding SP mode either.. I'm depressed since it seems like you can't do anything about this.

Here's a video to perhaps explain what I'm dealing with more accurately..
VIDEO0029 - YouTube
sorry for blatantly crap audio/video quality

pedroj said:

Here is one I took a while back with the camera set to manual and sb600...Nikon D300...aperture F7....shutter 1/125 sec...focal length 28mm...lens used 28-70mm F2.8 ISO 200...rain and hail

Click to expand...

ooh, tha's cool

Ok here goes lol.... Firstly you sync speed doesnt matter since nothing freezes movement better than flash.
Your flash duration is probably something around 25oooth of a sec. Your best bet is set 200 ISO and F11 or 16.
This will allow your flash to become the main light source, and will therefore freeze movement. At the same time,
the small apratures will allow a good depth.
Plus you can always try without flash and just use a shutter speed of around 1000th sec plus !

I did a little math and rain would travel 1/10 of a inch in the 1/300 of a sec that the flash stays on. That's if the flash fires at full power. Have you shot any rain yet? post one and let us see what it looks like.

Yea, here are the closest two I shot out of 20 minutes of frustration lol.

iso100 35mm f10, 1/30th



iso100, 35mm, f4.5, 1/80th


First I was trying to catch the rain hitting the ground and sloshing upward from the impact.

Then i got to thinking and was trying to capture the rain as it hits and CREATES the little tidal waves radiating outward. I don't know if that's possible, but I thought a slower shutter speed would help because I want to capture the fall, impact and the waves. hmm.. maybe that is just a photoshop thing and not possible?

Still interested in actually freezing the droplets though as they hit.

eurotrash said:

Yea, here are the closest two I shot out of 20 minutes of frustration lol.

iso100 35mm f10, 1/30th

iso100, 35mm, f4.5, 1/80th

I'm trying to capture the rain as it hits and CREATES the little tidal waves radiating outward. I don't know if that's possible, but I thought a slower shutter speed would help because I want to capture the fall, impact and the waves. hmm.. maybe it's just a photoshop thing and not possible?

Click to expand...

As above ( my last post ) but use strobe flash with camera secured to a tripod.
You can even practice indoors with a tap drippin in a bowl of water.

Camera Maker: NIKON CORPORATION
Camera Model: NIKON D5100
Lens: 35.0 mm f/1.8
Image Date: 2012-04-18 02:23:04 -0600
Focal Length: 35mm (35mm equivalent: 52mm)
Focus Distance: 1.41m
Aperture: f/10.0
Exposure Time: 0.033 s (1/30)
ISO equiv: 100
Exposure Bias: none
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: shutter priority (semi-auto)
White Balance: Manual
Light Source: Cloudy
Flash Fired: Yes (Auto, return light detected)
GPS Coordinate: undefined, undefined
Software: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.6 (Macintosh)


You were shooting at 1/30 of a sec at ISO 100 Flash probably did not even show up that much.

Try without the flash an raise the ISO to 400 or even 800. Also you can try a lower aperture to get a higher shutter speed. With that lens at the same distance cutting the aperture you would still have a depth of field of 1.24 feet.

how did you get my EXIF data? been looking for something to display this too
if it rains tonight, i'll try again in the dark. perhaps it was just too light outside? my guess is that if I do ISO100 or something low and the exposure comes out dark, when the flash fires it will freeze the motion.

I use a add on in Firefox. Just right click on the photo and it pops up.
FxIF 0.4.5
IE may have something like that also. I hate IE so I don't know.

yup me too. can't use it. thank you, i'll try these settings and see what I can come up with.

Does anyone know why when the flash is engaged it drops the shutter to sync with 1/200th? I would like to be able to exact more control. I don't know if I need to, but it certainly feels limiting for future projects...

Your flash will work at any shutter speed upto the cameras fastest flash sync.
Its all down to the type of shutter in any given camera. The old cloth type with horizontal travel would only sync
upto 60th sec. Most medium format cameras had there shutter in the lens and could sync at any speed.
200th of a sec is pretty fast. The only time and place that you will ever come close to requiring a faster sync
speed is in fill flash daylight on bright sunny days. The better flash guns use Hi,speed flash. This works by the
flash having a longer burn. This also reduces the flash working distance.
Bear this in mind..... you can freeze and catch a pic of a bullet leaving a gun with flash !

No way.. I always thought that my camera was way too slow to catch a .45 leaving my gun. I've got to try this in that case.

Thanks for the info. It appears I was correct in my assumption then that it is up to the camera's flash sync speed and not my flash itself that is causing the weirdities. That makes me feel like I can hang onto my 5100 a little longer and avoid upgrading for the moment I still want to go FX however..

eurotrash said:

No way.. I always thought that my camera was way too slow to catch a .45 leaving my gun. I've got to try this in that case.

Thanks for the info. It appears I was correct in my assumption then that it is up to the camera's flash sync speed and not my flash itself that is causing the weirdities. That makes me feel like I can hang onto my 5100 a little longer and avoid upgrading for the moment I still want to go FX however..

Click to expand...

Actually, the muzzle velocity of a 45 cal round should be in the area of 750 fps. Its only really fast if you're trying to catch it from the front!:indecisiveness::distress:

ZING! Haha. Good to know the muzzle velocity though, might come in handy one day.

eurotrash said:

ZING! Haha. Good to know the muzzle velocity though, might come in handy one day.

Click to expand...

So you can duck!!!!!!