Off Camera Lighting advice Please

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zoomin

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Richard
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As I am still on the learning curve can some body give me a suggestion on on a remote flash.So I dont have to use the built in one that restricts the shutter speed to 1/200.I want to use higher shutter speeds with flash but the built in wont let me go higher than 1/200.
I have a Nikon D40X and at the moment playing about doing Macro shots involving liquids.
At present I dont want to buy expensive stuff as I would prefer to gain knowledge before paying top dollar.

Any advice would be welcome.

Thank you (y)(y)
 
Ok so what do I need to do if I want additional flash lighting?
 
Don't get hung up on the camera shutter speed being the controlling factor. The flash duration will be much shorter than the shutter speed. This will depend on the flash unit you get and the intensity of the flash.

I did a bit of research and came up with the attached link. OK it's for a Canon flash gun ( cos that's what I've got) but I'm sure data is out there for Nikon Metz and Sigma , as well as others.

You'll see that on 1/16th power the duration is about 1/15000sec. Extrapolating the data back it would seem that at full power it's around 1/2000 sec. But you'll need to confirm this yourself.

So by using the flash as the controlling factor you can get very short exposure times. Naturally you need to do this in a darkened room as you probably wont want to much ambient light affecting your result

http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/flashdurations.html
 
Can't remember if it's the d40 or d40x but one of them has an electronic shutter which will let you sync faster than 1/200 without using high speed sync. Might be worth researching which one it is and seeing if it is yours.

If you are limited by shutter speed then finding ways to kill the ambient light will help as Chappers has suggested.
 
Hi Guys
Thanks for your input,will look into this.
Cheers
Richard
 
Remember, its the aperture that dictates the amount of flash the camera records, the shutter speed is irrelevant unless ambient light comes into the equation.
 
Kev M said:
Can't remember if it's the d40 or d40x but one of them has an electronic shutter which will let you sync faster than 1/200 without using high speed sync. Might be worth researching which one it is and seeing if it is yours.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately it's the D40 (6mp) that has the electronic shutter
 
the sb600 is a good budget flash option, i still use mine in situations that the expensive equipment does not go out in (punk and metal gigs, where i'm shooting from the pit, or for walking around with minimal kit) and you can use it as a slave to an 800 or 900 later if you think it is for you.
 
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