Does anyone know if this works with Canon digital cameras?

[MattCsnoH0MIE]

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1034&message=8243461

I'm sure it would be handy if it worked with canon dslr and canon speedlights...

[PacAce]

The Nikon guy shot his picture at 1/3200. The DRebel and the 10D has a top shutter speed of 1/4000 so you should be able to duplicate the Nikon guy's shot. At that speed you shouldn't have any problems stopping a water drop in mid-track. And, as an added bonus, you don't even need to spend a cent on tape like the Nikon guy did. Just set you flash to high-speed sync and you're all set.

Now aren't you glad you have a Canon instead of a Nikon. Otherwise, you'd be rummaging through the whole house looking for that darn electrical tape! :mrgreen: :)

[Andy_T]

(incompetent answer was deleted :))

[nucki]

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1034&message=8243461

I'm sure it would be handy if it worked with canon dslr and canon speedlights...

Its working without problems. I just made some testshots, nothing special, just to see if it works. its not tack sharp, because its really difficult to get the right focus.

setup was: 10D, 420 EX set on H-Sync, 1/4000 F8

best regards
Peter

http://www.picturebase.at/bilder/canon_forum/drop.jpg

[defordphoto]

Nice shot Nucki!

[evilenglishman]

I find this an iteresting discussion.
Would there be a similar "hack" for studio lighting?

I can fire my stobes fine at 1/250th, however 1/500th (and every other faster speed) produces a soft dark band at the bottom of the image. Why is that?
Logic tells me it should be fine as its exactly double the speed.

[Scottes]

I can fire my stobes fine at 1/250th, however 1/500th (and every other faster speed) produces a soft dark band at the bottom of the image. Why is that?

The shutter is fully open at a certain speed or slower. On a 10D this is either 1/200 or 1/250. At faster shutter speeds the shutter opens in such a way that only a portion of the sensor is being exposed at any one time. Think of it as an open slit moving across.

Since the flash is so very brief (1/30000th?) it only exposes that section of the sensor that is behind that moving slit when the shutter goes off. The rest of the image is black. If you're set on first-curtain sync one side of the sensor is behind the open slit so it gets exposed - the rest of the image is not exposed by the flash and is darker or even black, depending on ambient light. If you set to second-curtain the exposed/black sections would be reversed, and you'd get the dark soft band at the top of the image.

A flash with High Speed Sync actually fires many shorter and dimmer flashes, so that the flash will be going off many times as the open slit moves across the sensor, ensuring that the entire sensor will get an equal share of flash. External flashes like the 550EX and 420EX have this high-speed sync mode - your strobes must not. So they fire their entire power at a single point, and only the sensor behind the slit gets that light.

I have heard of people firing their strobes manually, rather than based on shutter button click. So they set to a long exposure and then fire the flash manually - hopefully their timing is such that the action is captured and frozen by the flash. Takes a dark room, I'd guess.

[evilenglishman]

bugger. thats spoiled my fun :(

[Scottes]

bugger. thats spoiled my fun :(

Well, if you can't fire the strobes manually then that spoils it. But you might be able to find a way to do so, but I'm sure someone makes something that will do this. (PocketWizard or something like that?) Perhaps your strobes have a "test" mode? They won't put out full power, but even that can be interesting for "double" exposures.

[PacAce]

bugger. thats spoiled my fun :(

Not necessarily! :)

If you're tyring to duplicate the water drop shot, there's no reason why you can't.

Give this a try. Set your camera to the highest sync speed. Set the aperture to something small, like maybe f/8. What you want here is anything small enough to prevent the ambient light from ruining your strobe shot. Turn off all lights, if possible, just before taking your picture. You just have to make sure that the strobe is close enough to the water drop or subject so that the small aperture set on the camera is not a factor.

This should work as long as the strobe light duration is in the thousandths of a second range.

Good luck! :D

[evilenglishman]

no panic really.
I didn't have anything in mind, other than it would be nice to be able to use the strobes with a faster shutter than 1/250th :D

[PhotosGuy]

I didn't have anything in mind, other than it would be nice to be able to use the strobes with a faster shutter than 1/250th

Well...would that be "proper"?
:D :D :D

[MattCsnoH0MIE]

Thanks for the replies they helped alot.