Chris OConnell Strobes Above His Camera’s Sync Speed

Our cameras sync at a maximum of 200-250th of a second but in this video Chris OConnell strobes at 1/500th of a second with his Broncolors. How does he do it? Well the new Pocket Wizard TT1 and TT5s are the secret. Instead of trying to explain it all here, watch the second video with more details.

Want more info about high speed sync? Check this video out.

December 5, 2010

Lee Morris

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scott
Well all users of the MkI Canon 1D were syncing at 1/500 8 years ago!
scott
Well all users of the MkI Canon 1D were syncing at 1/500 9 years ago!
http://markforephotography.com Mark Fore
Haha I was about to say the same thing. I still love my 1D Mk I. Now all I need is about 15k to spend on a broncolor set up and I can do sequences.
Dave E
How did he link his flex to his broncolor pack? I didn’t think the broncolor pack had a hotshoe connection?
http://www.rlmorrisweddings.com Lee
They have sync cord out jacks
Kris
Can’t wait for the Nikon version. Ughhh… taking tooo long to drop!
Kyle
Oddly enough the D70 (and D40 also?) syncs at 1/500th, which is nice for daylight fill flash. Does it use an older spring driven shutter, and newer cameras use electro-servo shutters or something?
http://www.rlmorrisweddings.com Lee
I may be mistaken but I was under the impression that the D70 didn’t have a shutter at all. The mirror would simply flip up and the CCD would turn itself on and off. Honestly, it seems like a much better system. Why in the world do we need shutters for digital cameras?
http://www.cooperblade.com Cooper Blade
Does anyone else feel like this video was almost exactly like Chase Jarvis’ videohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwzTRAfwqo8 ?
http://www.patrickhallweddings.com Patrick Hall Admin
I love Chase but honestly, he wasn’t the first guy doing these winter sports sequences. Our friend Dave Lehl on the right side of the site has been doing these for a long time too. It’s pretty common among sports photographers.
j24mike
I use Canon too, and i get higher than 1/500th. If you use RadiopopperPX transceiver on an STE-II sender on the hot shoe and a RadiopopperJR plugged in to the sync plug, AND turn on the Hispeed sync (i do it all the time) you can get all the way up to 1/8000th using photogenics and whitelightnings.
http://www.dafyddowen.com Daf
CooperB – yeah thought the exact same thing.
Much prefers Chase’s version as he explains more – and less ego – doesn’t claim to be the first.
http://www.imagineur.net Felix
Wow. That’s what I call ego…. :/
http://www.cooperblade.com Cooper Blade
oh ya I wasn’t saying Chase was the first, I just thought that this video was really similar’. I thought it funny they used the same Broncolor gear.
http://www.isaninja.co.uk isaninja
I can’t justify spending more money on Flex and Mini units when a 1D and 10D were syncing much higher years ago. Where did it all go wrong?…
Kyle
@Lee – I know my D70 and F100 make a “clack – clink” sound, and the various Rebels / D5000 type bodies go more “buzz-whirr” like the servos in an RC plane. Have you had any good experiences with mirrorless/shutterless camers – ala Lumix G1/Olympus Pen? I’m curious how a Canon G11 would do for high-speed sync. (obviously you wouldn’t get 11fps!)
http://joelcookston.com Joel Cookston
I shoot with a 5Dmii and have use the Flex and Mini for about 6months now and luv em. High syncs and ETTL so I can change up my flash power from a huge distance away. Great investment for me and my business. Course the high snyc speeds for Canon shooters doesn’t seem like a huge secret now though…
http://www.bmcphotography.info Brian
I used the TT5 and Mini to sync two canon speedlites last month. I was able to get them to sync all the way to 1/8000. I was stunned, there was no rear curtain shadow. There seemed to be a slight darkening of the image when you exceeded 1/2000 which I believe was caused by the front curtain not being entirely open in time. Still, it was marginal — a decent trade to sync the 5D MkII up to 1/8000
http://www.kevsteele.com Kevin Steele
Well hard to if say it’s “the First 1/500th Shutter Wireless Synced Flash Sequence”. The PW flex units can sync well above camera sync using Hypersync with various studio packs including Broncolor. You need to experiment to set the sync timing advance with their setup s/w. The mini-TT1 on camera and any PW on the pack. (although the TT5 on the pack would allow remote control of power for certain packs). I’ve done high speed sync it with Profoto and been a beta tester of the Nikon flex units just coming out to take my D3 above the 1/250th sync speeds with studio strobes. Common with the built in CLS and speedlights but great to now mix studio lights in.
Daniel Bird
I understand HSS but I’m not sure how he’s doing it with those “studio” strobes? Are the Broncolors capable of HSS?
Angus
@dan Guess so…if the duration is short enough you can sync at higher and higher shutter speeds.
I think what he’s probably meaning is that this is the first 1/500s sync with studio strobes (as opposed to speedlites)
http://www.kevsteele.com Kevin Steele
No it is not the first 1/500th sync with studio strobes. It may be “the First 1/500th Shutter Wireless Synced Flash Sequence (on a Monday)” With the miniTT1 you can advance the radio sync timing to enable higher sync speeds on most studio packs/strobes. It takes some experimentation to dial it in but you are basically advancing the strobe timing (via the PW software for the mini TT1/Flex TT5) ahead of where it would normally fire to do this.
Daniel Bird
So is firing the strobe’s twice for the 1/500 sync (twice because only half would ever be exposed if the sync speed is 1/250…) for each frame?
That’s what I’m not sure about, as with HSS with the Hot-Shoe flashes they fire multiple times for so that each part of the sensor is exposed to the flash due to the shutter never being open fully… so are the Broncolor’s doing the same thing? Or is that something that the Pocket Wizards are able to do? basically turn any flash into a HSS flash by firing it multiple times depending on the shutter speed?
http://www.kevsteele.com Kevin Steele
@Dan – no, Hypersync is basically a system which tells the strobe to fire earlier than normal allowing faster shutter speeds without the result of lost flash power across the exposure. (Or doubling flash power effectively with same output at a twice faster shutter). It does not pulse the lights like high-speed sync.
yaro137
Why don’t you guys try setting you on camera strobe to HS and trigger your studio strobe with that rather than using the wireless or the cable? It goes then well beyond 1/500 :) What do you say to 1/8000?…
yaro

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