[asp1880]

More of fill flash actually...just that from my experience, 1/500 is so fast that a lot of times the athelete themselves dont notice it. Coupled with reasonable iso, would allow for more "interesting" shots with decent exposure. Since i do a lot of close range sports, would work quite well.

The strobist blog has some articles about hi speed sync with a Canon G9 and pc cord from the hotshoe to a speedlight.
Strobist: How To: Sync a Canon G9 at 1/2500th of a Sec

Since you do closeup sports and hence don't need a DSLR with long lenses, maybe a G9 could work for you?

Sincerely,
--Anders.

[Ash]

Powerful flash provides versatility in fast action stopping ability:

1/1 power = 1/1000 second
1/2 power = 1/2000
1/4 power = 1/4000
1/8 power = 1/9000
1/16 power = 1/15000
1/32 power = 1/21000
1/64 power = 1/30000
1/128 power = 1/35000
(from: Flash duration of a Canon 580Ex flashgun | PhotosbyKev)

So even at full power, we're talking about freezing most action quite effectively.
A number of other articles on flash duration confirm these findings.

[mlatour]

This is 1/350 or so sync flash using my old Fuji S91000,
CODE ROUGE - Photos
CODE ROUGE - Photos


since I got a K-x, I cannot get the same flame 'freeze*' effect at 1/180...
(*defined flame detail and not 'blurred')


These are taken the K-x limited @ 1/180 sync :

http://www.coderouge.com/interventions/photo.php?photo=./1139/orig/07.jpg
http://www.coderouge.com/interventions/photo.php?photo=./1045/orig/03.jpg

Very specific type of camera usage you'll say, but I hope by the time I'm ready
for my next DSLR, a faster sync speed will be available. (and perhaps a EVF...)

Michel

[elho_cid]

I had S9100 too. the lens was horrible. But yes, I did pictures with up to 1/1000 using old manual flash with 200V trigger voltage.

[amoringello]

... Very specific type of camera usage you'll say, but I hope by the time I'm ready for my next DSLR, a faster sync speed will be available. (and perhaps a EVF...)

Every year I get the chance to photograph fire-eaters and fire-poi-ball acrobats, etc...
Flames are always a mash of light. Would be nice if I could use flash to light the person and shutter to freeze the fire a bit more.

OR... if Pentax would not cripple the damned camera and allow the user who knows what they're doing to use pc-sync'd flash at higher shutter speeds. I hate that the sync pin is disabled above 1/180s shutter speed. I know what I'm doing, I know what will happen above x-sync speed, give me the damned option to allow it! ergh...

Still, 1/500 or 1/1000s shutter would be nice. :-) :-)

[cwood]

Some sports photography requires both flash and high shutter speed.

Pocket wizard developed a solution for Canon users (and recently Nikon I believe) with the Flex TT5 transceiver's. These units allow you to manually configure both the first a second curtain so you can optimize your shutter speed for any given flash. Using this option I am able to get 1/500 sync speed with my Alien Bees on my Canon 1DmkIII. At 1/640 I get only a very small band of dark at the bottom of my frame that I can live with

I first became aware of this feature from an NHL photographer who was shooting for SI using Speedotrons mounted in the arena ceiling. Since the flash was not providing the full illumination of the players you could get significant ghosting at slower sync speeds during fast action.

Unfortunately the development of Control TL (Pocket Wizards own version of TTL) requires significant engineering efforts to make everything compatible with each manufacturer so it is highly unlikely that this will ever be made available for Pentax. Engineering problems caused a 2 year delay in releasing the product for Nikon users.

[Pentaxor]

Fixed lens cameras often do well in flash sync. Fuji X100 should do 1/1000 and so did Sony R1.

the X100 should be the best alternative for such occasions. too bad it not a telephoto lens.

[Freak]

yes they might however, at 1/500 is definitely less obvious then one at 1/250 much less one at 1/160. Since all i am going for is Fill Flash, it should work.

Think i will rent a 1/500s camera + flash setup and see how it does.

Why not use HSS and use 1/8000th if you like?

[elho_cid]

he X100 should be the best alternative for such occasions. too bad it not a telephoto lens.

R1 did. And used it is not expensive. Too bad it was slow and ugly. At least it had the usual hotshoe, not the strange Minolta thing.

Why not use HSS and use 1/8000th if you like?

That's expensive in practice... Only system flashes can do it and you need a lot of them to compensate for efficiency loss.

[amoringello]

Why not use HSS and use 1/8000th if you like?

Because the flash range would only be about two feet or less.

[Freak]

Because the flash range would only be about two feet or less.

Well that would depend on the ISO and the Flash, but i think 1/500s would work fine for what the OP is asking.

[Gerbermiester]

I'd love to go the HSS route, but can't afford genuine pentax lights right now. But, Cheap radio triggers and used nikon SB-25 and Sb-26's seem to do the trick pretty well.
I swear, that David hobby and all his awesome toys are ruining lives!

When it boils down to it, a flash sync at 180 is pretty dang good. What kinds of work are you doing that demand 500/s or less? (And I mean that out of curiosity, not condescension for the stuff I can't afford!)

[mattb123]

My Sigma EF-530 Super does HSS pretty well (it's FP for Focal Plane in Sigmaese). I've used it for some cycling photos and had good results. That flash is a great value IMO.

[Mike Cash]

yes they might however, at 1/500 is definitely less obvious then one at 1/250 much less one at 1/160. Since all i am going for is Fill Flash, it should work.

I'm afraid I don't understand this.

You want the faster shutter speed so you can use a less powerful flash setting which is less distracting to the athletes?

The flash setting is a function of aperture and has nothing to do with shutter speed, other than that the shutter has to be open during the flash, of course. A faster shutter speed would allow you greater latitude in controlling for ambient light. If you want to reduce your flash output, open up your aperture a bit.

Or have I totally missed the boat on this?

[amoringello]

...What kinds of work are you doing that demand 500/s or less? (And I mean that out of curiosity, not condescension for the stuff I can't afford!)

Fast action... without having strobes with the nuclear power to block out the sun. :-)
Yes, you can bring up your aperture or add gels to darken your ambient light, but you have to up the power of your strobes even more to counter act your aperture and/or gels. So you better bring some big power with you. A full power speed light isn't going to cut it with all those light cutting mods..

This is also important for things like martial arts and dog photos where you may not be able to control ambient light, and you just cannot blast the subjects with sun-blocking amounts of light. I often use flash, just have to be sure it is allowed before you do :-) But its not someplace to blast strobes two stops above ambient, especially if you intend to balance ambient with just a bit of fill light. In which case your shutter speed of 1/180 is going to allow a lot of motion blur from the subjects.

Being able to bring the shutter speed to 1/500 or 1/1000 will help stop action without the need to overpower ambient with flash power.

Another area is fire... if you ever photograph a fire breather, try balancing ambient light, subject and still try to freeze the flames without having a high shutter speed. You really need to use high speed sync, but you also do not want to be three feet away from a fire breather... :-)
So you want that high shutter speed to freeze action, but you also want enough power from a strobe to allow you to be more than a few feet away. (High speed sync will not necessarily allow that)