Shutter speed limit override with Canon Speedlites?

<p>Hi</p>

<p>Having recently been delving into using Speedlites ( something I'm not very good at ) I came across a video by David Ziser who was demonstrating how exceeding the maximum sync speed without going into HSS is sometimes a viable option for fill flash portraits.</p>

<p>This got me wondering. On my 5Dmk2 with Canon Speedlites, the camera won't let me set my shutter any faster than 1/200s. Is there any way to override this imposed limit? in his video, David was using a Quantum flash so maybe this is how he managed to pull it off. </p>

<p>Anyway, I'd like the option if possible so if anyone can tell me a way of doing it I'd appreciate it.</p>

<p>Thanks,</p>

<p>William</p>

<p>You have to use HSS on a Canon flash to exceed your sync speed. I think in the example from David Ziser he crops out any "bars" from the shutter in the final photo.<br>

Here is a good overview discussion from <a href="http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/syncspeed.htm">Ken Rockwell</a></p>

 

I have a Canon 550ex. If you press the plus and minus buttons simultaneously you will see a small icon on the flash screen with an "H" and a flash symbol. If that is on then you can set the shutter speed at above 1/200. This weakens the flash. I use it a lot shooting swimming to freeze action. The flash gets weaker as the shutter speed goes up and because the flash pulses the flash does not stop action as well, I think, but that doesn't matter if I shoot at 1/800 because the shutter does this work. Somebody correct me if I am wrong. This will work with your canon body. I shoot a lot at 1/800 to stop action. This provides enough flash fill to kill high contrast in some swimming venues.

<p>I remember people shooting with flash and a shutter speed a bit under the flash sync speed. Canon's ratings are a bit conservative, it might be possible to shoot at 1/350 th of a second or so, without using HSS and still having (almost) of the frame lit by the flash. I don't think this is possible with the EX series of flashes since with these the camera won't allow you to set a shutter speed shorter than the flash sync speed. Perhaps if you use a sync cord but in that case you will loose E-TTL.</p>

I just turned on my studio lights, hooked up a sync cord through a Wein Safe Sync and tried to fire my lights above 1/200. It won't work. I didn't think it would. My Bronicas had leaf shutters in the lenses and they would fire the sync up to their max shutter speed of 1/500. As I said above I find Canon High Speed Sync quite useful if you understand the limitations.

<p>I do it for outdoor fill flash using Pocket Wizards (the older model), and setting the flash power manually. </p>

<p>Thanks for the replies. I wanted to up the speed without the HSS kicking in. It would seem this is not possible if the flash is an EX on the hotshot, which mine is at the moment. I assume from what you said Matt, that it should be possible with wireless flash.</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

<p>William</p>

<p>William, If you are using external flashes, as in your video, you use the PC socket, the camera doesn't know when there is anything attached to the PC socket so you can use any shutter speed. It only defaults to max sync speed when you have a Canon Speedlite, or a compliant cable in the hotshoe.</p>

<p>But the max sync speed is there for a reason, over the sync speed you get a shadow of your shutter in the lower part of your image. There are ways around this but it gets more and more involved. You can use constant light source, long duration flash or pulsing flash (that is what HSS is).</p>

<p>Wireless flash is not the answer to achieve much over max sync speed, if your camera is 1/200 you can normally get away with 1/250 or a touch higher if you frame to crop. Here is a wireless flash image of a white wall forced to sync at 1/320. The band at the bottom is the shutter, there is no way round this with normal flashes.</p>

<p> </p><div></div>

<p>Thanks Scott. A tad over 1/250 would be fine for me. I just wondered how to make my camera let me go higher than 1/200.I have received delivery of Radio Poppers but I haven't had a chance to try this out yet but I'm assuming that as they only send the same info to the wireless slaves as if there was a flash on the hotshoe it wouldn't make much difference. I will try the PC cable with my 580EXII and see how it goes</p>

<p>William</p>

<p>A simple workaround to trick the camera into a higher sync speed is to tape over the TTL contacts on your flash, and just let the center contact touch. With the RadioPoppers, you can do wireless HSS, but as others mentioned, it will eat into your flash power. I'm getting my PocketWizard Flex system in tomorrow, which has HyperSync, which fires the flash just milliseconds before the shutter is released, and allows a higher sync speed while still using about 95% of the flash's full power. They also support full TTL, so I will be interested to see what sync speeds I can get with my QFlash.</p>