Nikon D5100: Any way to keep the flash on while Shooting Videos?

<p>Sorry for the noob question but I was wondering whether it was possible to keep the flash on while shooting a video with D5100.<br>

Thanks!</p>

<p>A flash is what the name says: a FLASH........</p>

<p>It's not always the case pal. I have seen some Canon DSLR cameras shooting video with the flash on, so there's that.</p>

<p>Which flash? Some Nikon flashes (SB-500 for instance) can do this.</p>

<p>The stock pop-out flash...</p>

 

<p>Nikon's SB-500's movie lights have nothing to do with its flash itself, but rather are built into the flash's body, so the the 'flash' is not really on when using it for video. A flash is as Hans states.</p>

<p>Small LED movie lights are very inexpensive, and lights more powerful than the SB-500's 100 lux are readily available and very affordable. If you are shooting a lot of video, a dedicated movie light might make more sense.</p>

<p>In any case, this feature is not available withe the camera's built-in flash.</p>

<p>You can find out more about the SB-500 here:</p>

<p>http://www.nikonusa.com/en/nikon-products/product/flashes/sb-500-af-speedlight.html</p>

<p>a flash can't recycle fast enough to be always-on while shooting videos, and even if it could, it would drain the battery pretty quickly. as others have suggested, a dedicated video light which fits into the hotshoe and has its own power supply is the way to go if you need illumination while video recording. </p>

<p>Actually some flashes designed for high speed motion study can flash at very high rate. However this isn't what these DSLR can do.</p>

<p>I use a LED ring light on my D5100; not much point in having the pop-up flash on even if can work. </p>

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<p>Actually some flashes designed for high speed motion study can flash at very high rate. </p>

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<p>Actually, <a href="http://www.scantips.com/speed.html">this article </a>explains why an SB-800 is better an an AlienBees external strobe for capturing a falling milk drop. the sb-800 can fire at 1/128, for a duration of 1/41600 sec; the AlienBees strobe only goes to 1/32. But that wouldn't be sufficient for video, which needs continual illumination from light sources to be effective. Otherwise you would get uneven lighting. Most high speed flash photography is aimed at motion capture of a single object, like a bullet hitting an apple, and may use sound sensors as triggers. But even a specialized high speed flash isnt designed for perpetual motion capture, even if you were to use one on a D5100. Which is why videographers use video lights.</p>

<p>Not only the battery drain, the whole pop-up flash would probably start to melt if it was used as continuous light - they can get seriously hot. So if there is a Canon doing it, it's probably having an additional LED light alongside the actual flash tube.</p>

<p>I'm unaware of any integrated flash from any brand that can do this - I would be astonished if Canon have done this (without me noticing), both from the perspective of how fast it would drain the relatively small camera battery and from the heating demands. Canon <i>do</i> (or at least, did) sometimes use the integrated flash as an autofocus illuminator, rather than the external light on some other systems; set to auto this has made me jump out of my skin with my old Eos 300D. Perhaps this is what you're thinking of? If you did have a light bright enough to illuminate a sensible subject built into a flash, you'd dazzle the subjects - as flash guns go, the ones integrated into cameras are very low power, and they still leave an after-image on your eyes.<br />

<br />

Anyway, as others have said, you should look at an external lighting source. Many continuous lighting banks are quite expensive for what they are - I'd compare with what a high-end floody flashlight like a Thrunite TN30 can do for the money (or check something like CandlePowerForums for ideas). Note that these things take big batteries (4x18650 in the case of the TN30) and have substantial heat sinks - and still get very hot to touch. But the ability to move lighting in general off the camera is pretty useful. Good luck!</p>

<p>For video, always look to off-camera lighting. Small LED units are now VERY modestly priced. Most importantly, they can be put on separate mounts so that you can get them up and away from the lens axis to avoid that deer-in-the-headlights look on your subject. Lighting a subject from right above the lens rarely looks appealing, though it does produce that run-and-gun news camera look, if it's helpful to have that look for aesthetic reasons. Otherwise ... get the light off (or at least on a mount well above) the camera. No, the camera's flash cannot play this role.</p>

<p>The OP might be thinking of taking still frames during a video sequence. AFIK, that's not possible with a mirrorless or DSLR camera in video mode, although many video cameras allow for simultaneous stills. If you (or someone else) uses a flash while you're shooting video, you get a bright diagonal strip across the image, not a complete, bright frame. That's how CMOS detectors behave with electronic shutters.</p>

<p>For video lighting, you need a continuous light source (or one with a very high frequency). Some flash units have a built-in LED lamp for this purpose, or you can use a separate LED, fluorescent or incandescent source.</p>

<p>Eric Arnold, <br>

The kind of flash I was referring to was the type that sync with a high speed motion picture camera. The camera would shoot up to 1000fps and it fires the flash with each frame. These things have heavy duty guard in front of the flash tube as they might explode.</p>

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<p>AFIK, that's not possible with a mirrorless or DSLR camera in video mode, although many video cameras allow for simultaneous stills</p>

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<p>actually, it is possible with some cameras, but it disables video recording. some 4k modes also allow for stills extraction after the fact. </p>

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<p>The camera would shoot up to 1000fps and it fires the flash with each frame. These things have heavy duty guard in front of the flash tube as they might explode.</p>

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<p>Ok, but that's hardly a solution for someone using a consumer DSLR, is it? i wouldnt suggest using the Hubble telescope for someone inquiring about basic astrophotography. The whole point of this thread is that on-camera flash is not a video light, and that flash in general really isn't suited for this purpose, either. </p>