HSS Archives

I’ve been using the new Sony a9 III since its release in February, replacing my Sony A1 as my main camera. One of the reasons for upgrading was the global shutter, I shoot a lot of images above the camera’s sync speed and have to use HSS, slowing down shooting and also limiting my Profoto B10X Plus’s battery life. I also shoot a lot of conferences and struggle with LED banding meaning I have to shoot with a slower shutter speed than I would like to avoid lines across the images.

Testing the flash with a shutter speed well over the recommended I was getting a problem where every few frames the flash wouldn’t sync and I got a blank frame.

Sync problem with Profoto B10 X flash

Shooting on location made the camera/flash combination unreliable to use so I had to convert back to using HSS, which wasn’t ideal when using near full power in bright sunlight

College student photography in Birmingham

Student photography in Birmingham for College prospectus

Profoto support have been faultless, but they couldn’t replicate the problem as the misfiring was random. After many nights of trying everything I could think of, I turned off the Anti-Flicker setting, problem solved, hope this helps if anyone else is experiencing the same issue.

Looking like I’ll be trading in my B10X plus flashes for the smaller and lighter B10X as I’m rarely using full power, even in bright sunlight.

Hospital consultant shot with Sony a9 III, Sony 35mm F1.4, Profoto B10 X flash.

Just got myself a new camera to replace my Sony a9, the flagship Sony a1 which was released earlier this year.

I’ve used Sony cameras for the past few years (Switch from Canon to Sony) and have been very happy with the whole system, the eye AF is a real game changer, but swapping from the electronic shutter to the mechanical shutter so I can use flash has slightly slowed my working.

I’ve lost count the amount of times I’ve left my a7iii on electronic shutter and wondered why the flash isn’t firing.
The Sony a1 is the first Sony camera that you can use with flash on electronic shutter.

I shoot the majority of my pictures using HSS so I can 100% control the look of the final image, I am interested to see how the far I can push the camera’s electronic shutter above Sony’s 1/200 second (Full-frame) or 1/250 second (APS-C size) flash sync speed.

Setup, 1xElinchrom ELB 500 on TTL for ease of use (I usually use the ELB500 on manual for consistency.) Elinchrom transmitter pro. All with the latest firmware.

Sony a1 F1.8 1/250th Elinchrom ELB500

Sony a1 F1.8 1/500th Elinchrom ELB500

Sony a1 F1.8 1/1000th Elinchrom ELB500

Sony a1 F1.8 1/2000th Elinchrom ELB500

Sony a1 F1.8 1/4000th Elinchrom ELB500

Sony a1 F1.8 1/5000th Elinchrom ELB500

Sony a1 F1.8 1/6400th Elinchrom ELB500

Sony a1 F1.8 1/8000th Elinchrom ELB500

Sony a1 F1.8 1/10000th Elinchrom ELB500

Sony a1 F1.8 1/12800th Elinchrom ELB500

Sony a1 F1.8 1/16000th Elinchrom ELB500

Sony a1 F1.8 1/20000th Elinchrom ELB500

Results were usable images up to 1/5000th second shutter speed which perfectly meets my requirements for most location portraits, slight banding was noticeable at 1/64000th. Looks like Sony has made the perfect camera and made the mechanical shutter redundant for most of my work.

I’ll be testing the anti flicker/electronic shutter function under LED lighting in my next post, hoping there will be an improvement to the 1/100th, or slower shutter speed (to eliminate banding) that I am limited to on the a7iii.

Tag Archive for: HSS

Sony a9 III Global shutter with Profoto B10X flash, problem solved.

Sony Alpha a1 camera electronic shutter HSS flash test with Elinchrom ELB 500 TTL

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