M9: sharp images at 180/s ?

[carlos_prado2]

<p>Hello</p>

<p>The Leica M9 has a Flash Sync speed of 180/s.<br>

Is 180/s fast enough to produce tack sharp images?<br>

Can anyone that has images shot at this speed, give me their opinion. Do the images look sharp at 100% magnification?</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

<p> </p>

[roland_dobbins]

<p>http://www.flickr.com/photos/null0/4616045208/meta/in/set-72157623955904271<br>

http://www.flickr.com/photos/null0/4615485077/meta/in/set-72157623955904271</p>

[stuart_richardson]

<p>It depends on the lens and the situation of course, but yes! Also, the flash will stop the action regardless of the sync speed as long as the sync speed is fast enough to underexpose the scene. Perhaps that is not explained well, but what I mean is that if you are in a darkened room and fire the flash, the motion will be stopped according to the flash's duration, not the shutter's duration. The sync speed only really comes into play when the ambient light and the sync speed are at more or less the same level. It is more important for fill flash and the like than in stopping motion in dark situations. <br>

But here is an image taken at 1/90th with the 75/2, both the regular photo and the crop. As long as your hands are steady 1/180th should give you good results in almost all situations. Of course, a tripod is usually better, but 1/180th is quite fast. <br>

<img src="http://www.stuartrichardson.com/stef-90th-1.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p><img src="http://www.stuartrichardson.com/stef-90th-crop-1.jpg" alt="" /></p>

[carlos_prado2]

<p>Stuart</p>

<p>Holy smokes! You have steady hands.</p>

<p>By the way, I'll be using a 28mm lens with the M9.</p>

<p>Carlos</p>

[Uhooru]

<p>The general rule of thumb used to be that the minimum speed needed for sharp images for normal shooting is the speed = the focal length. So a 50mm lens would be a minimum of 1/50 etc. So yes, if you don't get sharp images to a still subject, the problem won't be with the sync speed.</p>

[fred_c1]

<p>If you worry about 1/180, try shooting a film M at a quarter of the sync speed (1/50.)</p>