[Christopher M.W.T]

I'm just painfully curious.

I was using my camera outdoors today with mine and shot using a max of 1/180 and didn't have any issues, With the 540gz you get HSS which would seem to overcome it, except with wireless P-TTL.

But for others is this ever an issue?

[GoremanX]

As opposed to what? The 1/250 of Nikon and Canon? That's like half a stop of difference, which is barely any difference at all.

For me, it's never been a problem. But then I rarely ever need a flash outdoors.

[imtheguy]

That's like half a stop of difference, which is barely any difference at all.

Strongly agree. If 1/180 is a problem then 1/250 is also. I often use HSS to add fill when birding and shoot at 1/350s-1/750s using a BetterBeamer to give me range.

[Christopher M.W.T]

Cool I was curious.

How do people manage doing high speed photography, I seen it done with the K20. Ie capturing a balloon bursting, etc.

[LeDave]

I used to think that this is a big limiting factor for Pentax DSLR's, but it's not. Even Nikon's D40 has much higher sync speeds than the newer DSLR's a couple classes above it, shows that it's not a big problem. It's not as big of a limitation as some may think of it to be. 1/180s is enough for about anything. If you need to overpower ambient lighting in the day, you can always find ways around that.

[Christopher M.W.T]

I used to think that this is a big limiting factor for Pentax DSLR's, but it's not. Even Nikon's D40 has much higher sync speeds than the newer DSLR's a couple classes above it, shows that it's not a big problem. It's not as big of a limitation as some may think of it to be. 1/180s is enough for about anything. If you need to overpower ambient lighting in the day, you can always find ways around that.

I took some self portraits today with the flash on camera using PTTL and manual exposure settings.

Im finally getting a hang of fill flash...

[Deni]

If I want to isolate the subject and shoot at around f/2.0 then it is a major limitation.

Many time I've been left wanting an HSS. My 2 "cheap" flashes do a great job in more controlled situations but I really need a HSS flash.

[Christopher M.W.T]

I haven't fiddled around too much with HSS to tell if it's all that good or not.

[flyer]

If I want to isolate the subject and shoot at around f/2.0 then it is a major limitation.

The problem would still be there with a sync speed of 1/250 sec. As noted before, it's just half a stop faster than 1/180 sec.

[D W]

Cool I was curious.

How do people manage doing high speed photography, I seen it done with the K20. Ie capturing a balloon bursting, etc.

Those are done by short flash durations which is effectively shutter speed.

[omega leader]

I've never encountered a problem. It might be nice with Macro photos to be able to stop motion more effectively, but I'm not hurting.

Now if I had access to a leaf shutter lens and was used to a sync speed of 1/1000 or the like then it might be a big deal.

For now I don't see it as a limit to my photography. (My lack of skill is what is limiting me.)

[Ratmagiclady]

Cool I was curious.

How do people manage doing high speed photography, I seen it done with the K20. Ie capturing a balloon bursting, etc.

What you need there is actually a flash with a very short duration, not so much a fast shutter. (edit: Oops: D.W. caught that already. )

1/180th of a second synch is actually kind of a luxury for me on this sort of camera: with the ability to control ISO as well, I count it largely-sufficient. I haven't used a flash with the HSS option, myself, (I imagine that's nice to have where it'll work) but I actually usually like to use the slowest synch I can, and rarely am looking to use fill flash in brighter Sun. (In part, this is because I don't even see too well in the brighter light, quite often. ) In practice, one can generally get the exposure just fine: a bit of a faster synch might just enable a wider aperture under some circumstances, I suppose.

[noahpurdy]

In very bright conditions I've had issues however I've began to use ND filters to control harsh ambient light.

For what it's worth I would've probably had issues with sync speeds of 1/250th and 1/500th.

[Christopher M.W.T]

I saw someone do it with a K10D or K20D capturing an exploding balloon using an air pistol which would trigger a flash gun of some description. The camera was set to long exposure in pitch black.

Any one have any more info on this?

[kenyee]

Only reason to do it is to get darkened skies at noontime. You're better off w/ a Nikon D40 or Canon G11 if you want to do that if you want to run high shutter speeds.

Or do it the right way and stop using those puny little speedlights and haul out a 2400ws Speedotron pack so you can shoot at f13 or f16 in midday sun ;-)