Comments on: Snow Photos 101 – Part 2 – Which Camera and Lenses Should I get?

By: Dan Carr

Dan Carr — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:36:11 +0000

Yes in bright sun it is a challenge that we all face. UNless you use a ton of 1200w/s strobes theres no magic solution to that problem. Just get the flashes as close to the subject as you can.

By: Zack

Zack — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 06:07:26 +0000

Thanks for the response, and I guess you are right, I dont know why I thought that, maybe because I was talking about it and my friend mentioned his went to 1/500th but now I recall his is the original 1d. Also you are correct about under exposing the ambient, but in bright sun on a large subject(big rail,etc) its hard to even with 3 flashes.

By: Dan Carr

Dan Carr — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:42:26 +0000

Zack , the sync speed on the 1dMKIII was not 1/500, you are mistaken. It is the same as the MKIV which is 1/300 when using EX canon speedlights and 1/250 with other flashes.

I never really have problems at 1/250. Remember that the action freezing is done with the flash burst and not the shutter when using flashes so if you underexpose the ambient light enough, you won’t have any troubles.

(NB. the original 1d camera from about 10 years ago did have a 1/500 sync speed but that was a very very long time ago because it used a different type of shutter mechanism. Every camera from the 1dMKII onwards has been 1/250)

By: Zack

Zack — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:52:46 +0000

Hey Dan, do you ever get upset that they reduced the mark IVs sync speed to 1/300 down from 1/500 on the 1d mkIII? Does it affect you when youre dealing with quickly moving subjects? I get flash blur a lot at 1/250 on my 50d and Im thinking about moving up to the 1dmk3 for that reason. Please let me know your feelings on it.

By: dunny

dunny — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 05:58:59 +0000

thanks for the quick response, im gonna check ebay.
looking forward to your x-sync tutorial.

By: Dan Carr

Dan Carr — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 01:43:55 +0000

Hi Dunny,

Unfortunately I dont think those things will do the trick for you. They would probably work fine indoors but getting outside and especially up into the mountains does weird things with transmitters. The pocketwizards are generally regarded as the best out there (stay away from the TT1 and TT5, those ones suck) but even they experience problems when you get them cold and up into higher altitiudes. Cheaper ones wouldn’t stand a chance.

I have heard some great things about the Elinchrom Cyber Syncs though but part of their benefit is being able to adjust the power of elinchrom lights which you dont have so my thought would be go for some second hand Pocketwizards on ebay if you are budget limited. You dont need to worry about not having TTL, manual is way better anyway. But what I would say is that remember your shutter speed will be limited by the X-sync speed of your XSI. I think that is 1/200 anyway, but proper usage of flash and you wont have trouble, most cameras are limited to 1/200 or 1/250 including mine.

Keep an eye out for a tutorial in this new 101 section soon explaining all about how you deal with x-sync, i’ve written about half of it so far.

By: dunny

dunny — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 01:30:19 +0000

been following your blog a little bit, your photos are PRO.
i shoot skiing and snowboarding. sometimes senior portraits and other things too.

i have to ask your opinion on wireless transmitters for my 430exII xsi combo.
so i dont want to spend that much money, ive found some transmitters for my budget.
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.28511
they have no ttl tech, highest sync speed is 1/200.
im a little worried because i usually shoot at higher speeds especially in snow.
should i just get those cheap ones. or go with PW or Cybersyncs?
THANKS