Inactive Member 06
4th of December 2002 (Wed), 08:09
I bought a a 550EX Speedlite for my D60, mainly so that I could do flash photography in low light conditions with fast shutter speeds. I take a lot of photographs of my 20 month old son, who simply cannot be persuaded to hold still while I take his picture. I therefore need a fast shutter speed to minimize motion blur.
I've achieved good results by setting the speedlite to manual/high speed sync mode and setting the D60's aperture and shutter speed manually. It took a little trial and error, but I've found that using a 50mm lens at 200 ISO an exposure of 1/640 second at F8 is about right, although this of course varies depending on shooting distance.
I can't get the speedlight and camera to work well together automatically, however. If I set the speedlite to manual and let the camera choose the exposure and aperture, it always thinks that 1/4000 second at F22 is too bright, even if I manually reduce the flash power. If I set the speedlite to ETTL mode, the camera wants to use something like 1/60 second at F4, which is far too slow a shutter speed for my purposes. If I then try to set a fast shutter speed, the camera tells me that even the maximum aperture isn't bright enough...
It seems like the camera and speedlite don't communicate effectively. If the speedlite is in manual mode, the camera apparently has no idea how bright it is. If the speedlite is in ETTL mode, the camera seems to set the flash output to some low level, and won't increase the level if I ask for a faster shutter speed.
Am I missing something here? I can get good results by doing everything manually, but this is of course a bit hit-and-miss. I find it hard to believe that a camera in the D60's price range can't do it automatically. Is this normal for the D60, or is there something wrong with my camera or speedlite?
I'd very much appreciate any suggestions.
I've achieved good results by setting the speedlite to manual/high speed sync mode and setting the D60's aperture and shutter speed manually. It took a little trial and error, but I've found that using a 50mm lens at 200 ISO an exposure of 1/640 second at F8 is about right, although this of course varies depending on shooting distance.
I can't get the speedlight and camera to work well together automatically, however. If I set the speedlite to manual and let the camera choose the exposure and aperture, it always thinks that 1/4000 second at F22 is too bright, even if I manually reduce the flash power. If I set the speedlite to ETTL mode, the camera wants to use something like 1/60 second at F4, which is far too slow a shutter speed for my purposes. If I then try to set a fast shutter speed, the camera tells me that even the maximum aperture isn't bright enough...
It seems like the camera and speedlite don't communicate effectively. If the speedlite is in manual mode, the camera apparently has no idea how bright it is. If the speedlite is in ETTL mode, the camera seems to set the flash output to some low level, and won't increase the level if I ask for a faster shutter speed.
Am I missing something here? I can get good results by doing everything manually, but this is of course a bit hit-and-miss. I find it hard to believe that a camera in the D60's price range can't do it automatically. Is this normal for the D60, or is there something wrong with my camera or speedlite?
I'd very much appreciate any suggestions.