Can a 580EX II handle 10 fps from a 1D Mark IV on quick flash?

I'll be doing some hummingbird photography in August.

I would like to freeze the bird's wings in close quarters (<10' or so).

Has anyone tried either the H (10 fps) or L (5? fps) on a 1DIII or 1DIV with the quick flash of the 580 EX II?

I do have a Al Jacob external battery that I can use with the 580 for more power but I've never tried it with anything other than 1 shot.

Assuming the day is a nice day -- the setup is 1DIV, 580EX + Al Jacobs, Better Beamer, 300mm f/2.8 + 1.4x or 400 DO, not 100% sure yet. @ 1/320th, f/7.1, ISO TBD.

I think this may be exactly what you are looking for

http://strobist.blogsp​ot.com …-frozen-hummingbirds.html

Hope this helps

1000arms wrote in post #10477958
A better answer for hummingbird photography than I gave: I was answering the speed question, or at least pointing to some information on fast recycling.

I wasn't trying to disqualify the relevance of your post, I was only trying to add to it. I think both post are very relevant

Both posts were great.

From what I'm reading neither was actually using the CF 6 quick flash thing. They just set it to Manual and go for the lowest power output.

My problem is going to be that I'm going to be shooting from almost 6-10' feet away. At 1/32nd power, and possibly a bright day I don't think the power will be enough to even rich the bird. Maybe using the better beamer will get me another stop of light out so ~1/16th or thereabouts.

I've been thinking on how I can test this to see what would or would not work. The closest I've had is to use a fan and try to freeze the blades as they're spinning. See how far I can be from the the fan at 1/32nd.

Just in case someone can think of something else. I have 2 - 580EX II, a 430EX II and PWs up the wazo. I also have 1 Al Jacobs Battery (580EX II connector), and a better beamer (580EX version).

1000arms wrote in post #10477903
You might find http://strobist.blogsp​ot.com …l-em-speedlights-for.html interesting.

In the second link of Frozen Hummingbirds with "50 beats per second", all are done by Nikon speedlight ETTL. But in the first link (quoted above), it is said that Canon speedlite ETTL cannot handle 9 FPS. But somehow Wein optical slaves could trigger up to 9 FPS.

Why is there such a big difference? The Canon flashes are not as good in terms of speed?

aram535 wrote in post #10478177
At 1/32nd power, and possibly a bright day I don't think the power will be enough to even rich the bird. Maybe using the better beamer will get me another stop of light out so ~1/16th or thereabouts.

Get the flash off camera and closer to your subject. And if that still isn't enough power, it wouldn't hurt to borrow, rent or buy some more flashes. Get some cheap ones and just set them all on manual.

Also, I believe the 580exII will shoot at 8fps (Canon 7D or 1Dmk2 speeds). I'm not sure about the other flashes.

adam8080 wrote in post #10478230
Get the flash off camera and closer to your subject. And if that still isn't enough power, it wouldn't hurt to borrow, rent or buy some more flashes. Get some cheap ones and just set them all on manual.

Ah, maybe in the first link the two slaves are too far from the volleyball player. So they cannot catch up with the speed.

Well... it depends on how good your battery is and how fast the recharge time for the flash. Shooting at continuous 10fps with flash turned on using any battery powered flash (AA size), the flash is unlikely to shoot at 10fps. Chances are, you will get shots in between with no flash on it.

With external battery pack, high ISO, short range and large aperture, you can get many more shots per second than if any (or worse - several) of these parameters are at the other end.
I haven't tried if my 580 EX II can follow my 7D at full speed, though. Without catching fire, that is.

1000arms wrote in post #10479836
The flash should freeze the wing motion as long as most of the bird's illumination is from flash as opposed to ambient light. Is there a less than full speed burst rate on your camera? If you can place the flashes close to where your subjects will be, and trigger your master flash with a PW, you should get good motionless-wing results. The question will be "how many frames per second can you can you use the flash for illumination?", but at least the wings should be stopped.

If you set everything up, back away and use the PW's to trigger the camera as well as the master flash, you may get some good results as well. Remember to set your focus to manual.

Well obviously I won't know until I get there (another 2 weeks). I'm trying to figure worse case scenario, bright sunny day with no clouds. If that is the case, a 1/32nd power flash from a couple of feet isn't going to be enough to freeze the wings. Today is actually a day like that here, so I'm going to do some testing using a fan as my subject and see how far I can be with the flash.

Yes, 1D series have two speeds: H is 10 fps and L is 3 fps. 3 might be a little too slow, if I can get the flashes for 7 or 8 fps I'm still happy and I'll take the darker frames.

I know on the 1Dmk3 you can change the fps on the high and the low to whatever you want. I'm not sure which 1 series you have though.

aram535 wrote in post #10480167
Yes, 1D series have two speeds: H is 10 fps and L is 3 fps. 3 might be a little too slow, if I can get the flashes for 7 or 8 fps I'm still happy and I'll take the darker frames.

Well the gear list is in my signature, but in this case I'm using the 1D IV. I actually need the 1.3 crop for the extra FL distance as well as the FPS. I don't think the 1Ds's 3 fps is enough.

Well there should be an option in the custom functions to change the fps on burst. Maybe someone with a 1Dmk4 can help you out.

But if your flash can't fire at 10fps, then only only one of every two frames will be lit correctly.

No, there is no way of changing the FPS rate of the lower level.

I'm setting up a test to see how fast they can fire. I think it will more like every 3rd or 4th frame that will be dark. From what I've read so far 580EX properly powered can do 7-9 fps.

Now that I think about it, maybe there maybe a way of artificially lowering the 10 fps's rate. By doing a RAW+L maybe. If it has to write two files for every frame, maybe the fps will drop into the 7s.