Elinchrom Skyport HS - Hi-Sync making a silk purse out of a sows ear?

paul williams

paul williams

Suspended / Banned
Messages
925
Name
Paul
Edit My Images
No
Having just decided to start using Elinchrom heads after having been a Multiblitz user for over 35 years, I was quite intrigued by the HS triggering system, but somewhat bemused that it only worked with flash heads with a very long flash duration. If I understand the principle correctly what they've done is allow you to sync the flash pulse, of say a D-Lite 4 having a minimum t5 duration of 1/800, so that the peak of the output occurs during the passage of the shutter opening across the whole sensor (down to 1/8000sec). Looking through the compatibility list of their heads, it only works with heads that would normally have been considered to be poorly specified in the flash duration department. Even their newer ELB 400 Hi-sync head has the slowest flash duration of all the available heads (though it costs more) the ELB 1200 Hi-Sync head doesn't even have a specified duration, just saying 'Optimised for HS'. Now the question that popped into my head was that as the requirement seems to be a head with a nice looooong flash duration (looking through the online tutorials, no adjustment is made at the head end) and a camera brand with a compatible HS trigger, if I got a HS trigger (not that I've got a compatible camera, though a fujifilm trigger is rumored) used it with my the Skyport Universal Receiver would it work with any old flash brand with a nice long t5 duration - anyone tried?
 
Yes, the HS Skyport with a suitable receiver unit would work with any flash unit with a long flash duration - say t.1 around 1/200sec

Hi-Sync is just tail-sync, otherwise known as tail-hypersync, or Over-Drive sync, or Super-Sync or whatever. It just needs a flash duration that burns long enough for the shutter to compete it's full cycle at speeds above x-sync maximum, roughly 3ms or so depending on the camera, shutter type, shutter speed, etc etc. Quite a bit of variation to be had there but as a rough rule of thumb, cameras with fast x-sync speed are better as they sample less of the tail of the flash pulse as it decays, giving both brighter exposures and less fading up the image frame, but you'll always get some fading - typically a difference of maybe two stops between top and bottom, but can be more. If you use a fast duration head, like the Quadra Action option, half the frame goes black no matter what you do. Elinchrom D-Lites are not great for this either.

So, you need a long flash duration with some means of extracting the HSS flash timing signal from the camera, and then for best results, a way to fine tune the exact firing moment with a delay measured in fractions of a ms. Elinchrom's HS Skyport does all these things very neatly, pretty much plug-in-and-play and it works well with the HS head, particularly because it's voltage-regulated so the flash duration actually gets longer at lower power settings. You can also do tail-hypersync with, well with anything really, but it also works decently with the Godox AD600 and X1 or XT-32 triggers that have off-set timing adjustment, though because that's IGBT, it only works at full power.

The big benefit of tail-hypersync is it's effectively significantly brighter than pulsed HSS, like at least one stop, maybe two or more (measured in the middle of the frame) though it's nowhere near as bright as normal sync flash despite what you may read. You can also get slight colour shifts up the frame too, though I've never seen anything significant that can'be easily corrected in post. Against that is the inevitable fading up the frame as mentioned, plus no auto-TTL exposure control and no ultra-fast flash durations.

The fading issues make HS less suitable for studio working where plain backgrounds and lack of ambient light will show it up, but outdoors the bright ambient level fills-in and evens-out the overall exposure making any fading virtually invisible.

Godox is the obvious option for you, with the Fuji version X1 trigger* and compatible receiver. Much cheaper, too :)

*Check that the Fuji version will do this, I've only used Canon.
 
I don't think a special trigger is required at all(?). All you need is for the camera to switch into HSS mode (offset the timing) and a long flash duration. AFAIK, the only thing Tail sync triggers offer is the ability to refine (delay) the flash timing so you can get more light from it (place the peak).
You can just use a speedlight (manual power) to optically trigger the studio strobe... I believe any TTL trigger will also let the camera switch into HSS.
 
sk66 said:
I don't think a special trigger is required at all(?). All you need is for the camera to switch into HSS mode (offset the timing) and a long flash duration. AFAIK, the only thing Tail sync triggers offer is the ability to refine (delay) the flash timing so you can get more light from it (place the peak).
You can just use a speedlight (manual power) to optically trigger the studio strobe... I believe any TTL trigger will also let the camera switch into HSS.
Click to expand...

The camera won't switch to HSS timing or go above x-sync max shutter speed without an HSS enabled trigger (or flash) attached. With a standard manual trigger (single pin) you can usually use any shutter speed, but then you'll only get normal x-sync timing.

As for off-set adjustment, I'd say that was pretty vital to get the most out of tail sync. Depending on the camera/trigger/flash you might get lucky, but unlikely to be optimum and could be a long way out. Godox triggers are cheap :)

You can use optical slave triggering though, as you say - just put a speedlight on the camera in HSS mode at low power and that should trigger a studio head.
 
Last edited:
From my perspective, the Elinchrom solution is the only one I'd consider, as having started the move to that system (ELC Pro HD) I'll want the ability to control the heads from the camera, the Hi-sync thing was just a thought as I have a particular Multiblitz head that seems perfect! Just found it interesting that Elinchrom has a good marketing strategy for kit that could have been considered poorly specified...and putting a bit of a premium on the price as well
 
HoppyUK said:
You can use optical slave triggering though, as you say - just put a speedlight on the camera in HSS mode at low power and that should trigger a studio head.
Click to expand...
Actually I don't think it needs to be optical either (with Nikon at least)... you can use the PC port instead (camera/SB). But that's getting pretty convoluted for something that's of limited use when true HSS is becoming so common...
 
sk66 said:
Actually I don't think it needs to be optical either (with Nikon at least)... you can use the PC port instead (camera/SB). But that's getting pretty convoluted for something that's of limited use when true HSS is becoming so common...
Click to expand...

There are various workarounds that photographers have been using with tail-sync for many years, but it's always been a hassle and doesn't work well in a studio that shows up its weaknesses.

What's changed is the arrival of new lithium powered battery units, that can be used outside where a) you need power, and b) ambient light effectively conceals the fading tail problem. Elinchrom has been quite clever in taking their old-tech flash units and mating them with new-tech radio triggering to make the whole thing practical and easy to use.
 
mike weeks said:
Standard practice of tail sync
Long enough flash duration

Did it with my Yongnuo triggers

Can even bodge my Godox AD600 to do it at full power

Mike
Click to expand...


Could you please explain how to do it with the AD600?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top