Help regarding Nikon d5200 and high speed sync speedlight

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so the Nikon d5200 does not have 'Auto FP High Speed Sync' so the fastest shutter is limited to 1/200...my question is if I use an off camera high speed sync speedlight in manual connected via wireless receivers would I then be able to use the fastest possible shutter speeds?? o_OI want to freeze motion dead still. also can anyone recommend a high speed sync speedlight with wireless receivers...I want it to be TTL as well, as I want the flexibility of being able to use manual as well as TTL. off camera I will be mostly shooting fitness models in gym environments and on camera possibly weddings...any help would be much appreciated! (y)

This was the flash I was considering: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00Q5Z9N...olid=XNTOD444W2Y1&coliid=I2HBGV0OTXFWWH&psc=1
 
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No. With Nikon not all bodies support FP sync. If yours is one of them, it's a camera upgrade that's required.
 
Thank you for the quick response...looks like an upgrade it is! To be honest im eager to shoot with a full frame sensor anyway, just a cost issue at the mo.
 
Lord Lorenzo said:
Thank you for the quick response...looks like an upgrade it is! To be honest im eager to shoot with a full frame sensor anyway, just a cost issue at the mo.
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You don't need a full frame camera to get HSS. There are some DX cameras that support HSS including the Nikon D7100.
 
Yeah I understand that...its just that I wanted to upgrade to a full frame camera at some point anyway...I feel like now is good a time as any
 
What type of shots are you doing, you can freeze motion without hss if the flash is providing the majority of the light as the flash duration will be much shorter than the exposure. If you need a shallower depth of field whilst using flash to keep it under 1/200 you can also often get better results with an nd filter to knock down the exposure than using hss which massively reduces the output of the flash.
 
Lord Lorenzo said:
Yeah I understand that...its just that I wanted to upgrade to a full frame camera at some point anyway...I feel like now is good a time as any
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Just as a side-note to that. I wouldn't have a lot of hope for that flash being powerful enough to achieve HSS. It's a great feature but only really good for portraits or close-up objects and not so good for sport etc. because the power output is much decrease. I know that on my SB910 is gives a max range of around 20m when using HSS. I have no idea what the other speedlights are like but I used to use a Yongnuo and the power and recycle times were awful.
 
I wanted to set up the flash from the side, turn the lights out and shot my friend (who is a magician) with cards falling from above, to freeze them so they are sharp.
 
In that scenario I doubt you'd need hss. If it's lit with flash it's the flash duration rather than shutter speed that will freeze the motion. On speedlites this is much faster than your cameras shutter can provide. If you're wanting the cards in focus you'll need a small apperture for depth of field so using ambient at a fast shutter may not even be possible.
 
For high-speed sync, you need both the camera and flash to have that feature - and neither has it in this case. Cheapest HSS flash is probably Yongnuo.

However, as mentioned above that might not be necessary, or maybe not even the best route. With flash at normal x-sync speeds (ie up to 1/200sec) the flash duration is the effective bit for freezing action, and with speedlights that can get very short indeed at low power outputs. In round numbers, at half power a typical flash gun will be around 1/1000sec in terms of shutter speed equivalents, and after that the duration roughly halves with every halving of power. The sweet spot here might be around 1/4 power with a flash duration of maybe 1/2000sec or 1/3000sec that'll pretty much freeze most action, while still putting out a usable amount of power.

There is caveat though. If the ambient light is bright such as daylight near a window, then that will be recorded at the x-sync speed ie 1/200sec. What you get is a sharp flash image, overlaid with the blurred ambient exposure. The solution is to shoot in artificial ambient light that is far less bright and will barely register, if at all.
 
At the highest available sync speed provided by camera the shutter is not fast enough to freeze the cards sharp...
 
Lord Lorenzo said:
At the highest available sync speed provided by camera the shutter is not fast enough to freeze the cards sharp...
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Yes, but the flash duration will be. See above.
 
is that with an ocf or without?

When you're lighting with flash as long as you expose to exclude the ambient light the shutter speed doesn't matter it's how long the flash is lit for which freezes it. As hoppy says this can be between 1/1000-1/10000 typically for speedlights. When you're trying to freeze motion with flash you want to be in manual exposure set shutter to sync speed, or ideally lower say 1/160, then adjust iso and apperture to severely under expose the scene ideally to black unless you need the ambient but additional fill flashes would work better if lighting for this purpose. At this point only the flash duration dictates how much motion is captured.

here's a video which explains....
 
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Sorry this all getting slightly to complicated for my brain lol! Im investing in the d750.
 
I agree, just easier...ill try and find a video of what I wanted to achieve...
 
Lord Lorenzo said:
I wanted to set up the flash from the side, turn the lights out and shot my friend (who is a magician) with cards falling from above, to freeze them so they are sharp.
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You don't need HSS for that. The 'exposure' is the flash duration, and at mid ISOs and close distances that'll be faster than the max shutter speed of your camera even at sync speed. So long as the smbient doesn't register.
 
Phil V said:
You don't need HSS for that. The 'exposure' is the flash duration, and at mid ISOs and close distances that'll be faster than the max shutter speed of your camera even at sync speed. So long as the smbient doesn't register.
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What do you mean be as long as the ambient doesn't register? So are you saying I can manually set the flash up and use faster shutter speeds...sorry im new to this
 
Lord Lorenzo said:
What do you mean be as long as the ambient doesn't register? So are you saying I can manually set the flash up and use faster shutter speeds...sorry im new to this
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If your camera is set at something like 1/200sec at f/11 ISO100, that's typical for daylight. Use those settings indoors under artificial light and the picture will be hugely under-exposed, probably close to black all over. So when you use flash in a situation like that, the only light registering is the flash and therefore if that flash has a very short duration/burn time, it then becomes your 'effective' shutter speed.

You also need to understand how a focal plane shutter works, as fitted to all DSLRs, to know why the max x-sync speed is critical. That will then explain how and why HSS works the way it does, the pros and cons. The biggest drawback with HSS is it uses tons of power, so shooting distance is substantially reduced (and recycle times will be long, too).

A lot of people seem to have a block around using flash, but it's not difficult and a little basic understanding will serve you well. The FP shutter is explained pretty well in that video link above, and there are loads more on YouTube. He's another one from Mark Wallace that also explains how high-speed sync works, about half way through.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-BD_xD43oA#t=238
 
Lord Lorenzo said:
I agree, just easier...ill try and find a video of what I wanted to achieve...
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No, you're not getting it.
The flash duration of a Nikon SB800 goes from around 1/1000 to 1/40000 (ish) with no ambient light on the subject, that's the entire time your subject is visible to your sensor.

We only need FP sync for mixing flash with daylight. You don't need it for freezing action indoors in controlled conditions.
 
I understand how the shutter works thats why I couldnt understand how you could workaround HSS, it took a while but I think I get it. So basically I need to find a flash duration that will freeze my cards as the flash duration is whats going to expose my image to the camera...right?
 
That's basically it yeah.

You want to set your camera so when the flash doesn't fire the photo you take is basically black. As long as you do this whilst keeping your shutter speed under the flash sync speed, when you then add the flash the actual exposure time will just be the amount of time the flash is lit for which is 1/x000 of a second.
 
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