# I'm very confused (Need help)



## Alexander Dingley (Apr 25, 2016)

So i'm trying to find a studio strobe that allows me to fire at a high shutter speed on my camera, but I don't really care about the flash duration. I've seen a few Youtube videos where they have shot at 1/5000 of a second on a Nikon DSLR and they got no black bands anywhere, is this HSS or something else?


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## Watchful (Apr 25, 2016)

Ask the person that posted the video you are referring to, they will have the information you seek.


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## Alexr25 (Apr 26, 2016)

Could be HSS, could be something else such as HyperSync. For HSS to work both the camera and the flash unit must support that function, for HyperSync to work well you need a longish flash duration and the correct triggering. 
This article explains the basics of both systems. Demystifying High-Speed Sync | Fstoppers


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## table1349 (Apr 26, 2016)

Light Science & Magic.


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## KmH (Apr 26, 2016)

Nikon calls it Auto FP (Focal Plane) flash sync. Canon calls it High Speed Sync (HSS)

The normal flash/shutter sync speed is called the x-sync speed.
Most DSLRs have an x-sync speed of 1/200 or 1/250.
The x-sync speed is the fastest shutter speed that has both shutter curtains open all the way at the same time.

At higher shutter speeds one or both curtains form a slit narrower/shorter than the image sensor. The faster the shutter speed, the narrower/shorter the slit.
So a flash unit has to fire more than once during high shutter speed exposure so there is no black band recorded behind the partially close shutter curtain(s).

The problem then boils down to the fact a flash unit can't fire and full power and then re-charge fast enough to do another, or several  more, full power flashes.
So what the flash does instead is fire at less than full power so it can fire the required number of times on just 1 full power charge.

A technique many photographers use to get around the high speed sync/re-charge cycle time problem is to 'drag the shutter'.

Dragging the shutter entails setting an x-sync shutter speed but understanding that if the scene is dark enough a flash duration shorter than the x-sync flash/shutter speed will stop motion in a scene as effectively as shutter speed does all by itself.


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## Derrel (Apr 26, 2016)

If you want to be able to use a studio flash unit at 1/500 second and faster, the older Nikon D70 is excellent at that. Using a PC cable can easily get you above 1/1000 second with a studio strobe on a D70. Paul C. Buff himself mentioned being able to easily shoot at 1/2500 second with the Nikon D70 and an Alien bee strobe unit, in his old forum, back when it was active, and he was feisty and still alive. His forum is still archived and on-line. I seem to recall that he was able to get 1/4000 second or so, but with a somewhat reduced effective flash power, using the Alien Bee flash and a PC cable connection to it, shooting on *the "tail" *of the AB's flash pop.

Look at this 2007 Strobist thread and its associated links for doing FAST shutter speed flash with "regular' flash, where "regular" means single-burst flash, not rapidly oscillating HSS or FP-Sync flash that is actually stroboscopic. Strobist: Hacking Your Camera's Sync Speed, Pt 1


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## Watchful (Apr 26, 2016)

As you see, no one here knows for sure what a person used on a YouTube video, to find out, you should ask the person that posted it, other than that anything here is pure speculation of what _might_ have been used. You can do that much yourself.


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