Digital Camera with Studio Strobes

I do a lot of shooting in a basement studio with traditional studio

strobes - umbrellas, reflectors, light boxes - 800watt-seconds. I

have been shooting film, mostly b&w, and I use a handheld strobe

meter for exposure info.

 

What digital cameras are suitable for use in this situation? I need

a sync socket - can be PC or hot-shoe - and the ability to manually

set an f/stop. Do I have to go all the way to the $1,000 cameras

(SLR's) to get this capability or could I use something like the

Nikon 8700 or Canon G5? Do they allow manual exposure settings AND

do they sync properly with studio strobes?

 

Thanks.

Keep in mind that most cameras other than SLR will have a limited f stop range Someo nly stop down to F /8 or 11. Secondly, if the camera has a hot shoe, you can buy a PC adaper to put on it for a synch terminal. One other thing..........I had the Nikon 5000 and returned it becasue there was no way to turn the built in flash off when the hot shoe was being used. This might apply to a lot of different brands.

Peter,

 

You can attach almost any flash setup with any camera that has an ISO hot shoe contact

using an appropriate adapter. I would suggest using a Wein SafeSync unit to protect the

camera's electronics from studio flash systems, which often have very high trigger

voltages. Most of the better quality cameras have manual settings and can be used with an

external studio flash with ease. Since most of these cameras have leaf shutters, they're

very amenable to flash work.

 

The Konica Minolta A2 also has a PC flash sync contact rated for up to 400KV triggering.

 

Godfrey

I never had trouble with the Olympus C 5050. You can make a menu choice to have internal on board flash and or without the outboard flash (your studio unit). Synch circuits are another issue you need to check out natch... You will usually shoot in manual mode, and set both the aperture from your meter and a shutter speed no higher than the manufacturer recommends.Usually no more than 1/90... I do believe you will find a number of cameras fit your bill in the five to 600 hundred US $ range. Personally, I abyhor PC cords, so use a small flash in the shoe pointed up to trigger a slave on the powerpack of the studio strobe. Then you can sidestep the synch voltage issue. The mid price Olympuses have A mode, Manual mode, and a "custom mode" you can pick called,- no laugh signore- MY Mode.(a pre set)aint that cute? Actually it is in. Good shopping.. No preflash if you choose none on some of these models,important to double check.. Next problem,sir? GS

400KV did you say...stand on a rubber mat,please....

Sorry about the K... It's 400V ... just a typo. :-)

 

Godfrey

I've been using the Nikon 5400 with alot of good results. As K. Michael said though, the f stop only goes down to 7.5 . I can use it manually and turn off the built in flash. I use an adapter on the hotshoe to attach it to my lights. I really like the little monitor which is on a swivel so I don't have to bend over to look thru the viewfinder. Downside is that like most digital cameras there is no cable release attahment (why, why why is that???). Cost, with 256 card was less than 500.00 on ebay.

I have a Canon G5 and it would work fine for your needs. When anything is slipped into the hotshoe the on camera flash is turned off. It syncs down to about 1/1250 seconds using an inexpensive radio slave and off camera flash (I do not have studio lights and they would be awful heavy to hike with ;o). At shutter speeds faster than 1/1250 my G5 fails to sync which is just fine in anything but super sunny weather where using a reflector for fill might be a better call. The manual claims a slower sync speed, but that is because they do not want to advertise that it outperforms their professional cameras thanks to the iris shutter in the camera.

 

The G5 supports shooting in full manual (what I use most of the time outdoors in the cloudy season). And it has a built in ND in case your studio flashes are overpowering it.

 

My experience with syncing it with a studio strobe was testing the radio slave before leaving the store and that worked perfectly. But I doubt there is much difference between using a flashgun and a studio strobe with the radio slave (except having to solder together a female mono-plug to hotshoe converter).

 

And while the G5 is awful above ISO 100 (I usually use ISO 50), at ISO 50 with good light it takes nice clean images.

 

hope this helps,

 

Sean