Profoto Adds High Speed Sync to Beloved B1 Strobe through Firmware Update

Until now, High Speed Sync (HSS) has been a luxury feature designed exclusively for speedlights (and select new strobes), allowing you to shoot using strobes at shutter speeds previously unavailable. However, announced this morning, Profoto has enabled High Speed Sync solutions to their beloved B1 studio strobe, and best of all? It's available now as a simple firmware update.

If you follow Fstoppers often, you'll know that last year, I was able to get my hands on the Profoto B1 TTL Studio Strobe, and decided that they were the best strobes on the market today. With the compact battery attached to the light itself, as well as TTL functionality, the Profoto B1 has revolutionize the off camera lighting world, allowing you to expose correctly using off camera lights, easier than ever before.

However, strobes still have some shortcomings. While using them, you're typically limited to a maximum of 1/200th of a second for your shutter speed, and the use of neutral density filters were required if you wanted to expose correctly while shooting using shallow depth of field. With the ability to use high speed sync, you're able to increase your shutter speed capabilities, with the use of the strobe firing many short blasts in a fraction of a second. According to Profoto, their HSS system allows you to shoot using their strobe as quickly as 1/8000th of a second without any limitations of gear. Perhaps the most surprising feature, is that HSS is able to work along side the TTL capabilities of the Profoto B1, allowing you to get consistent exposures without the need to set any settings.

High Speed Sync works with both Canon and Nikon camera systems, and is available right now for free through a firmware update. Upon installing the new firmware, you're then able to enable HSS using a simple press of a button.  For more information about the firmware update, check out Profoto's website.

[via Profoto]