Flash Photography with K10D

I recently bought my dedicated flash. I did not get the nice expensive one from

Pentax, I bought a good chep one that allows me to take good pictures even at

35 feet in total darkness.

 

Anyway, I was hoping to use it during soccer/basketball games to take pictures

of my kids while playing... haven't tested this yet. I was playing around with

it and noticed that no matter what I did I could not get the shutter speed any

fastre than 180 -- and that was on "X". Is there some trick to get it to shoot

faster than this with a dedicated flash or is this really fast enough for

sports stop action photography?

No. You can not use a flash with a shutter speed faster than 1/180 of a second with a K10D.

 

I've posted an explanation of why before, lemme see if I can find it and link to it...

From <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00Nbla"

target="new">http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00Nbla</a>:<p>

 

<b><i>Matthew McManamey, Dec 09, 2007; 11:19 p.m.</b><br><br>

Yes. This is normal.<br><br>

 

If you try to shoot with a flash with a shutter speed faster than 1/180, you would get a

dark band along the top or bottom edge of the frame, or maybe just a thin band of image

across the frame somewhere.<br><br>

 

The maximum flash sync varies between cameras. The K100 series</i> [and K10] <i>is

1/180th, PZ and P3 series was 1/100th, K series (K1000, KM etc.) and Spotmatics 1/60th

(K series and Spotmatics have a vertical shutter so the band would be on the

left/right).<br><br>

 

This happens because the flash only lights the scene for 1/5000-1/10,000 of a second,

so the flash has to fire after the first curtain has opened all the way, but before the second

curtain starts to close. At shutter speeds faster than the max sync speed, the second

curtain starts to close before the first curtain is open all the way, so there is no point in

time where the flash can illuminate the whole frame.</i>

You would need a new Pentax flash with high-speed capability. But the higher the speed, the shorter distance is your flash range. But it should do well at 35 feet and beyond with say the AF 540FGZ.

 

However, with a fast lens and high ISO setting, you may be able to shoot with no flash at higher shutter speeds.

Higher synced shutter speeds are what you get for your dollars with those nice expensive ones from Pentax... Otherwise you're stuck with shutter speeds of 1/180 or slower.

 

Keep in mind that the flash only lasts for a few milliseconds, so the flash will be freezing the action, not the shutter speed.

Ja, with my K10 and my 540, I can sync all the way up to 1/4000th.<p>

 

This is where the value of P-TTL really is. The camera determines the exposure from the

pre-flash, and will hold the light of the flash on for the duration of the exposure.<p>

 

The only situation I find this really valuable is when doing outdoor photography with a fill

flash and I want a shallow DoF.<p>

 

When shooting indoors, I slow the shutter down as much as I can to get ambient light in

the shot. That way I don't just get a properly exposed face in a sea of blackness. If I am

getting motion blur from the ambient light, I trigger the flash on the trailing curtain so the

blur is BEHIND the motion, not in front of it. An example of where I FAILED do this:<P>

 

<img src="http://71.158.200.250/ff07/lunch/thanksgiving001.jpg"><br>

You'll notice that the puck is just right of center when the flash fired, but there is a trail in

FRONT of the puck almost all the way to the goal. If I fired the flash on the second

curtain, the puck would have been defined closer to the goal.

Tim,

 

If I could make a suggestion for your basketball photos: I wanted to take pictures of my sons basketball games as well, but didn't want to use a flash. (I have a k10D camera that I bought with a Pentax 18-250 lens.) I recently purchased a Pentax FA 50mm, 1.4 lens and it has allowed me to take indoor pictures of the games. I use the Tv (shutter priority) at 1/250 to stop the action. Here is the type of pictures I was able to get with that lens:

This was with no flash, and it was my first time with the lens. Next game I think I will use Tv mode again, and fix the ISO at either 400 or 800.

What I said. And flash will stop action if it is the primary source of light, but not as fill flash where its lighting is secondary. So shutter speed will be a stop action factor for many sports venues, even with flash.

BTW the 60mm 1.4 is a fine lens and about as fast as you can get. But a fast pro style zoom offers more flexibility, and f/2.8 is the fastest. That might be fast enough, some test metering can be helpful. You'd need to determine the best focal range for your needs... whether you use the 28-75mm more or 75-200mm.

That is, 50mm 1.4 I meant.

Everyone: Thank you for all the information. I really appreciate it as I am still a newbie to this type of photography. Thank you all.

 

S Arena: Nice shots by all accounts, imo. I particularly liked the one with the shooter and defender in the air. With the shutter priority of 1/250 what was the typical iso? From the shots I would imagine 1600. I try my best to stay away from 1600 to avoid grainy pictures if I want to enlarge them. Was the flash in use for those photos?

 

Also, I don't have the budget anymore to get yet another lens. I have the standard kit lens plus my 75-300. I usually use that for sports shots so I can get close. I try to use TAv so I can open the apertuyre as much as possible and then try to set the shutter as fast as possible while using the flash, but with TAv I can't get the shutter faster than 1/60 (I think that's what it was anyway -- don't have the camera with me right now or I'd check).

 

Can anyone recommend good starting settings for indoor sports with what appear to be some sort of vapor lighting, 75-300 mm, f4.5-5.8 lens, with or without flash? I have used green mode with some decent results, maybe I should just take myself out of the loop? I know this is a very newbie question, my apologies.

You're welcome Tim. When viewing picures in Flickr, you can see a lot of the EXIF data (all the info about the shot). Click on the picture, and you will notice on the lower right of the screen "Additional Information." See where it says "Taken with a K10D?" That is data on the picture. Simply click the "more properties" link just below that, and you can see alot more information including iso.

 

A few other points:

a) Don't be afraid of ISO 1600 on the k10d! Some of the best pictures there are at 1600 and noise is a minimum. I have read this advice from people with alot more experience with the k10d than myself, and now I believe them. The noise is more prominent on underexposed images.

b) This experience has taught me something else I have been reading on this forum and others from experts. Use manual when you can. Notice from the EXIF data, my iso is in auto and floating all over. Next game I am going to take a few test shots before the game and fix the iso at 800, shutter at 1/250, and the apature per the meter (it will probably be 1.4 or 2.0) I think the lighting on my pics will be alot more consistent that way.

c)Your lenses will be great outdoors, but you may have frustration indoors. 1/60 will show blurrs on the players extremities and the ball. Also, you will not be able to get shots like this with flash. If your best aperture is 4.5, the 1.4 lens will collect approximately 10 times more light! Long term, save your pennies so you can put one of these in your bag. They are reasonably priced. I got mine for $199 at B&H http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/40755-USA/Pentax_20817_Normal_SMCP_FA_50mm_f_1_4.html but you can find them on Amazon etc. Nothing subsitutes for aperture in this application. Heck, even an excellent 2.8 lens takes in 4 times less light than a 1.4.