Help!

[jeff bishop]

I have an AE1 and a Sunpak Auto 322 D flash unit. Low on the back

of this unit it says: CA-1D Slow Sync for Canon and lists my camera

as well as other Canons.

 

Here's my question: I would like to experiment with slow sync.

From what I understand I set the aperture for the flash but the

shutter speed for the background. Is this correct?

 

I haven't tried it yet. Please advise.

[gregory_nicholson]

You are correct, the flash will handle exposure within its distance range and the slower shutter speed with increase the exposure of your background. Conversely, a faster flash synch speeds of 1/90, 1/125 or 1/250 will allow flash or fill-flash when your background is too bright for a 1/60 shutter speed. You must do some experimenting in how much of an exposure difference you can accept. If the two aren't reasonably close you'll wind up with an unnatural photo where the flash exposure is crisp and bright and the background is slightly flatter in color saturation with added grain.

 

For example if your ambient light reading is f/5.6 at 1/8 set your camera to that and the auto exposure flash to f/5.6. You'll still need a tripod to get the background sharp at that slow of a shutter speed. Experiment with setting the flash to either f/4, or f/8 too. You can also move the flash off the camera with a long synch cord and do some great night time photography. Good luck and have fun with a ton of new possibilities.

[awahlster]

Jeff, You can experiment but I don't believe the AE-1 supports slow sync. If the flash is dedicated a dedicated unit the flash sets the shutter speed to 1/60th when ever it is placed on the camera? If you try to over ride this byt manually setting the shutter speed to say 1 second it will still fire at 1/60th.

 

A simple test will prove this out. I tried it on my AE-1 and a 433D Sunpack (granted it does not have a slow sync switch if your does possibly the flash has circuitry to allow this.

[trw]

I have an AE-1P, and shutter dragging works. Don't bother trying shutter speeds faster than the flash sync speed on cameras with focal plane shutters (probably all SLRs). You end up with part of the image obscured by the shutter as it slides across. It works fine on TLRs and other cameras with a leaf shutter.

[gnashings]

I've done slow synch with my AE-1 but usually in situations that require very long exposures - so I would generally fire the shutter and shoot the flash off by hand. Interesting results.

[walter_degroot]

i have an ae-1 and a sunpac dedicated flash with slow synch switch ,

when i talked to them , they said it would permit slower speeds to be used, the other setting reset the camera to 1/60 even if the shutter was set faster. I have not tested this either way,

 

I was just given the camera and flash and use manual settings and 1/60. and the photo's were ok.

the manual on www.canonfd.com has info about canon flashes but no "slow synch" info.

my older slr's were less fancy.

[weasel_bar]

I once posted a question about how to slow-sync with ae-1. In short, if you have a "dedicated" flash, you have to either use the flash off-cam with a pc cord or cover 2 of the 3 pins on the hotshoe up so only the big one is exposed. dont know if this helps you or not, but good luck.