I'm really confused about sync speeds for Nikons. I was just reading a post on a forum where the guy says he shot his subject at 1/1000th and another where it was said that desired results were achieved at 1/500th. My understanding is that the d70, d100, d200, ETC... all had sync speeds of 1/250th. Well, the d100 is actually less than 1/250th, I believe. How are these results being achieved at these shutter speeds?? Can these sync speeds be cheated somehow??
Here's the link to what I read with pics.
http://www.wheelsandwax.com/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?b=51,m=1145733784

Sorry, the subject when directed to the link is "2 from today" authored by "fruitboot"

aaronchuck,
The flash sync speed on the D70 is 1/500" which is faster than the 1/250" of the D2 series cameras. It's also possible to set cameras and speedlights that support CLS up for what Nikon calls FP flash where you trade flash power for higher speeds. I just had a discussion on this subject with David Cardinal and Moose and learned how FP mode works (which isn't explained in the D2x, D200 or SB-800 manuals) and although you get faster effective sync speeds you lose a lot in terms of guide number and flash reach. But you can set CLS system cameras and lenses up to work above the normal sync speed. The setting is on the camera and not on the flash and I don't recall if the D70 supports the auto FP mode, but if it does it's possible to use flash up to 1/1000" but the range will be limited.

-Dave

http://www.f64.nu/albums/album19/DSC_0046.sized.jpg is a photo where I exceeded the flash sync speed on my d100 by a stop I think. I didn't keep the exif data, so I can't confirm exactly how much I exceeded the official sync speed.

The skateboard photos could indeed exceed the sync speed, because it's mostly for fill, not for primary light, and the subject is pretty well centered and doesn't take much of the frame. If the subject were near the edge of the frame (top or bottom for horizontal), there would be serious light dropoff.

If the subject were near the bottom of the frame, exceeding the sync speed would cause the shutter blade shadow to show up in the photo as it did mine.

Exceed by yet another stop, and half the photo would be dark.

I used to have one of the vivatar 285 like the skateboard photographers used. It was a good, reliable, powerful flash! I eventually sold it and bought a used sb24 which also worked well with my F4s. The vivatar does not have any high-speed-sync features like the fancier nikon flashes can do. It's just got a single conductor on the hotshoe which tells the flash when to fire. The photo above was taken with White Lightning flashes with umbrellas. I really don't use portable flash much.

I did something really strange with my D100 not long after I got my first SB-800. I put one of my old manual focus Nikkor lenses on the 100. I then set the shutter speed to 1/1000 and the f/stop to 5.6. I took an empty VHS case and violently flung it across the room, snapping a photo in the process. It took a few attempts to co-ordinate this but the outcome was very interesting. I zoomed in on the image and the case had been stopped dead in the air and I could read every word on it! There is no way I would have got this result at 1/60th. I tried it again in a different location except this time I very quickly spun around in a circle and randomly took a picture without looking thru the view finder. The results were the same. A very sharp with no blur image. Weird.

FLash sync speed is determined by the point that the shutter is completely open - the front blade is clear of the sensor/film and the back blade has not yet started to close on the shutter. The flash fires at this point and lights up the entire frame. Because of this, different cameras have different sync speeds. Vertical or horizontal shutters are a factor - the old F3HP had a flash sync of a mere 1/80th of a second, virtually useless for fill flash.

The D1/h/x bodies all have sync speeds of 1/500th second.
The D100 has a maximum syncspeed of 1/180th second.
The D2h/x/hs have maximum speeds fo 1/250th
The D70 is listed at 1/500th - but I have never used one to know for a fact on that.

Knowing that those are the maximum speeds that the shutter can be set to and the flash can fire to cover the whole frame without one of the blades blocking a portion of the image and making it dark does make a person question the max speeds of a camera.

Nikon came up with a cool feature that originated with the F5 film camera and the SB-28 flash. The flash would fire fast bursts in succession to match where the shutter blades were open. The higher the shutter speed the more times the flash would fire during that exposure. This also works with the SB-800 units on the D2h/x bodies. Having not used a D1 body in ages I don't know if it was an option for them - I don't believe so.

The high speed sync is indicated by "FP-Auto" on the flash and on the menu settings for the D2 cameras. IT allows you to sync at literally any shutter speed, but the drawback is that because the flash is firing multiple times the flash range is greatly reduced.

Jeff Jones
Gallup, New Mexico, USA

Just a note, you do need to change your camera setting. I am not sure about the D70 but the D2x with the sb800 set custom setting #E1 to TTL FP auto. Setting shutter speeds above 250th of a second will fire small bursts of flash. This reduces the overall flash output by a little more than two stops. Watch the range display in the flash to see if the flash is going to cover the distance you are shooting.