personal blog about, well, various stuff…
Force flash high speed sync on a Canon 550D
If you don’t have a flash that supports high speed sync you are limited to a shutter speed of 1/200.
However – you can actually take pictures at 1/250 – 1/320 without any noticeable artifacts using a normal slow sync flash. If you go faster than 1/320 the curtains will start to show up.
Here is an example using different shutter speeds with a slow sync flash
EDIT: Ignore the one that says 1/160 – it’s actually the 320 and the 250 is 200 – my bad -I’ll update the image if I get the time.
To get the Canon camera to allow for a faster shutter speed than 1/200 when using a flash that doesn’t support high speed sync the trick is to not letting the camera get contact with the front two pins on the flash. This however also disables TTL, so you’ll have to adjust the flash manually.
Just use some tape to insulate the front two pins and it’s possible to use the flash with any shutter speed.
| Print article | This entry was posted by Dennis Thomsen on 2010/11/23 at 23:05, and is filed under Photography. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 1 year ago
Hi,
I bought this camera for my girlfriebd for christmas. And she is having problem with the shutter speed. Some of the pictures look fine but on some of them the the lower part of the picture is black and looks like one the pictures you posted here. Is it a way to adjust this so it doesnt happen??
And is it an error with this camera since this seems to be a problem.
Btw i bought here the fastest sd card i found with 30mb speed
about 1 year ago
What flash is she using? If it’s the camera build-in one it shouldn’t happen as it will automatically limit the shutter speed to 1/200s. At what shutter speed was the bad pictures taken? (you can see this when viewing the image on the camera and pressing “Disp.”)
about 1 year ago
She is using the build in flash. but the thing is that she hasnt changed any of the setting. And the bad pictures appear randomly. Example: she can take 4 pictures after another and 1-2 out of 4 can have the black in the lower end of the picture
about 1 year ago
When you use the flash at any shutter speed because you taped the first hot shoe connectors, do you get that black line or not?
Cheers
about 1 year ago
It enables me to use a flash that is not capable of doing “high speed sync” at up to about 1/320 of second before the curtains starts showing (most Canon camera’s limit this to 1/200 seconds). However – I now own a HS-capable flash, but just posted this as it might help somebody in search of higher shutter speeds…
about 1 year ago
Hi Dennis,
Care to mention the type of external flash you are using and whats the manual setting on the flash like?
I’ve read from other forum, having more powerful strobe will help increase the shutter speed before the black band occur.
Your input will be much apprciated…thanks
about 11 months ago
It was done with either a Nissin D866 or D622. Can’t remember what the output was set at, sorry.
about 8 months ago
I’ve got a 550D canon.Can I use a pentax flash which was used on a normal picture camera?Model is AF 280T