Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

The most reliable AB for this purpose would be an AB1600 set at lower power. This will provide a t.1 time of about 1/300 second. Use at low power will reduce the amount of light available, but will give the slowest durations. ABs have rather fast flash durations compared to other lights. Flashpoint (at least the older ones like I have tested, have very slow durations and may work better.

I would still prefer to use Einstein and a Nikon D40-D70, or Canon G11, G12, etc. The limitation with the Canons are f8 highest aperture, the disadvantages of D40 are older 6 M pixel sensors and a potential for noise in the blacks, particularly is under exposed.

I haven't tested the Canon Gs, but assume they have a better CCD sensor and lots of pixels. May have to buy one just too see how good (or bad) they are. Heard good reports though.

Just to clarify, the Nikon D40, D50, D70, and D70s would work in this configuration. The D40x and D60 are later cameras that fall into the numer-illlogical sequence, but have a different sensor that is 10MP, and does not include the hybrid shutter. One of the D1 or D2 series cameras may also have the same ability, but I can't say which, if any, will do it.

I would say this shot is a result of expert tweaking of the timing and the flash-illuminated area comprising of only part of the frame and the flash being rather close to the subject.

Can't argue the excellent results, but I have seen many customer comments that they are only able to achieve 1/320 to 1/500 second exposures without banding or other timing problems. Seems some are able to achieve good results while others can't.

PW really needs to answer some of these issues. BTW, the timing info I stated came from LPA President/Engineer and the analysis came from me.

Einstein, in particular, is only successful at HyperSync at or near full power due to the longer flash durations. At lower power settings/ short flash durations, it is impossible to achieve a full frame of illumination, even or otherwise, beyond 1/400 (maybe less). While th photo is quite nice, if less fill was desired while maintaining the same DoF, your only option would be to back the light off or risk banding, even outside.

FYI... the flash was about 8-10 feet back for this shot (I was holding it). The edge burning was vignette in LR. The stuck at 1/500 is a bug that is easy to get around... just have to set the High Speed Sync crossover in the software to a number (not auto) and then set it back (you can also disable HSS but this other method works better with other flashed). From there it's pretty much automatic... we have this working across several canon camera models from 20D up to 1D series. You can lower the power of the flash and still get pretty good results but of course lowering the flash requires you to slow down the shutter (of course you can increase the ISO to compensate).

Compared to Einsteins, ABs are actually a little harder to time in. If you use the AC9 then you can pick auto in the software but I find it not to work very well. If you attach by sync cable then you have to mess with the timings a bit and it's hard to get much more than 1/2000 our of an AB800 this way.

The downside with ND filters is that in this case you would need about a 6X filter on the camera but that also means you would need 6x's the light hitting your subject to compensate for the filter factor. You could get an graduated filter but then you also have to watch more of the head placement in regards to the gradient and it helps then to have a light placement then fall off towards the bottom of the frame. The key is that you would need the 6x light. Of course you could put an ND filter on the light to cut the level of output without then changing the duration or having to move the light.

My experience so far shows little loss in power from our Einsteins and decent throw. Can you do 1/8000 at ISO 100 and 40 feet away? No but you can at about ISO 640-800. Now if you only need that at 1/2000 of a sec then you can get pretty decent at ISO 250-400.

Brian is 100% correct.

We'll be teaching this in our "Mixing Flash with Ambient Light" workshop at the end of this month too. Using the Einsteins and PocketWizard system. These systems partner very well and it's something we will continue to promote to our students and online.

HyperSync is definitely no toy - it's an extremely powerful, and valuable tool.

Hey guys, just wanted to thank you for all your help. I got my Alien Bee 1600 in today with the super big reflector for maximum throw. I bought this light just to take out to the beach and use it with water sports so I thought I'd share an image from the short session. Here's the details:

D300s in an Ewa Marine Underwater Housing
Tokina 11-17 lens
Pocket Wizard TT5 trigger
Alien Bee 1600 with their largest reflector

Was able to shoot this at ISO 1000, f7.1, 1/1250th of a second.



These guys move really fast so I wasn't sure if 1/250th would really be quick enough to capture their movement especially in bright light. Today I got lucky with a big storm moving in so the 1600 was actually way too powerful but it allowed my assistant to stand further away and light up a larger area. I'm still not completely comfortable with super fast shutter speeds and strobe and I still need to try this on a bright partially cloudy day so I can get that over powering the sun look.

Oh I do have one question. When I got it out to the beach, the AB1600 started firing on it's own with and without the Pocket Wizard plugged in. I had to turn it off and on a few times and luckily it didn't act crazy again during the kiteboarding session. Any idea what the problem could have been? It was really windy so I couldn't hear if it was firing at full power or just low intermittent flashes.

Wonderful shot! Thanks for sharing it and the details.