Newbie to SLRs

[Goose]

Hi everyone,

Being a newbie to SLRs, I need some advice from the experts here. Pls dun flame me if I get anthing wrong. :embrass:

I've been playing around with my G2 and 420EX flash for a while. Being interested in slides and negatives, I got myself a EOS30 and 28-105mm f3.5-4.5 lens.

As i have been arrowed by a fren to help him take some photos during a function at a hotel, I have been thinking of using Press 800. To get the feel of the kind of meter reading I would get from my camera, I tried it at home first (night time in my room with the fluorescent light switched on). I set up my EOS30 with 420EX flash on and iso to 800. I set the camera to AV mode with f-value to 3.5 at 28mm. The shutter speed I was getting was around 1/10 to 1/30. It quite low to handheld the camera at this kind of shutter speed.

Is there any workaround solution to this? Thank you!!!

 

[ziploc]

Hmm... did you turn on your flash? If your flash is on, your camera should set shutter speed to the flash sync speed (1/60 or 1/125), regardless of the aperture setting on the camera (wider aperture and higher iso will increase the range of the flash).

 

[megaweb]

1. use Program mode
2. get a faster lens like 50mm f1.8
3. push the asa 800 to 1600

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by ziploc
Hmm... did you turn on your flash? If your flash is on, your camera should set shutter speed to the flash sync speed (1/60 or 1/125), regardless of the aperture setting on the camera (wider aperture and higher iso will increase the range of the flash).

typical Nikon user advice :devil:
also typically wrong answer......;p
for Canon bodies, Av mode is also slow sync / fill flash mode for flash. Shutter speed will be low if ambient light is low.

Goose, you need a backgrounder on the ETTL flash system. Read through this entire article for all your answers...and then some.....

http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/

 

[Goose]

Originally posted by ziploc
Hmm... did you turn on your flash? If your flash is on, your camera should set shutter speed to the flash sync speed (1/60 or 1/125), regardless of the aperture setting on the camera (wider aperture and higher iso will increase the range of the flash).

Yup, I did turn on my flash.

On the G2 with similiar settings, the camera will set the shutter speed to 1/60 to 1/125. Quite puzzled by this. :dunno:

 

[Goose]

Originally posted by megaweb
1. use Program mode
2. get a faster lens like 50mm f1.8
3. push the asa 800 to 1600

Oh drats, that was wat i was hoping to avoid. ;p

 

[ziploc]

Originally posted by Red Dawn


typical Nikon user advice :devil:
also typically wrong answer......;p

Hahaha.... ok ok, I'll let the Canon guys settle this among themselves. ;p

Hmm... on 2nd thought, while in flash photography, nikon's shutter speed varies in aperture priority mode when the lighting drops below the sync speed too. My mistake. :embrass:

 

[megaweb]

Originally posted by Goose


Oh drats, that was wat i was hoping to avoid. ;p

why do u wanna to avoid using "P mode" ?

 

[Goose]

Originally posted by Red Dawn


typical Nikon user advice :devil:
also typically wrong answer......;p
for Canon bodies, Av mode is also slow sync / fill flash mode for flash. Shutter speed will be low if ambient light is low.

Goose, you need a backgrounder on the ETTL flash system. Read through this entire article for all your answers...and then some.....

http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/

Thanks Red Dawn. I'm now reading thru the article.

Also thanks to everyone too!!

 

[Goose]

Originally posted by megaweb



why do u wanna to avoid using "P mode" ?

Hoping to expose the background properly too. Looks like got no choice liao...

 

[megaweb]

your answer can be found at Red Dawn's link

http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/

7) I tried to take a flash photo and the camera wanted a really slow shutter speed.

This occurred because you are trying to take a flash photo in low-light conditions and the camera is in Av (aperture priority) mode or the night PIC (icon) mode if your camera has it.

In Av, night and Tv (shutter speed priority) modes the camera meters for ambient (existing) light and fills in the foreground subject using the flash. It does not assume that the primary light source is the flash, and therefore the shutter speed it sets is the same as it would set if you weren’t using flash at all.

In low light this results in slow shutter photography. If the shutter speed is very long you will, therefore, need a tripod to avoid motion blur during the exposure.

Alternatively you can switch to full auto (green rectangle) or Program (P) mode, which automatically expose for the flash-illuminated subject and not the background. These modes try to ensure that the shutter speed is high enough to let you handhold the camera without a tripod. The drawback of P and basic modes is that photos taken in dimly lit areas usually end up with black or poorly lit backgrounds.

 

[willyfoo]

Whare are the differences in the Canon flash system & the nikon flash system?

 

[ckiang]

Originally posted by willyfoo
Whare are the differences in the Canon flash system & the nikon flash system?

Simple, the Nikon flash system is superior. :devil: Aren't you glad you got a Nikon D100?

Seriously, in the Nikon flash system, when you are in Aperture Priority and don't explicitly set slow sync/2nd curtain sync, the camera will automatically select 1/60 ~ max flash sync speed when it detects a flash.

In the Canon, slow sync appears to be default. I still think this is a weird behaviour, that's why goose is confused (as are several other people).

Just a difference in design. Indoors, I usually use Manual anyway. For best results, your shutter speed/aperture combination should be as close to the ambient reading as possible for more natural effects.

Regards
CK

 

[tomshen]

hehe the war between Canon and Nikon flash system starts again... Well, the Canon way of flashing looks wierd at beginning but once understand the difference between Av/Tv and M/P I found it a solid implementation. There is nothing wrong for Canon to define Av as fill-in flash mode. Defaulting to 1/60s does not sound to me a superior solution if it is not the result the photograph wants. Anyway Canon has left some entries (auto/P) for beginners to start with.

 

[Goose]

Hehe...thanks everyone for their help insights to flash photography.

 

[ckiang]

Originally posted by tomshen
hehe the war between Canon and Nikon flash system starts again... Well, the Canon way of flashing looks wierd at beginning but once understand the difference between Av/Tv and M/P I found it a solid implementation. There is nothing wrong for Canon to define Av as fill-in flash mode. Defaulting to 1/60s does not sound to me a superior solution if it is not the result the photograph wants. Anyway Canon has left some entries (auto/P) for beginners to start with.

Actually it can be quite bad for beginners who shoots in Av mode to have it slow-sync by default as it can result in blurred pics. But like you said, once you understand the system, it should be pretty okay.

Regards
CK

 

[mervlam]

good grieves! Always ALWAYS read the manual CAREFULLY. Nikon's and Canon's flash systems ARE different.

 

[mervlam]

i had ever used 1/8s at f/3.5 for night events at Sentosa's Central Beach. The photos look nice. Perhaps the flash acts like a shutter and there isn't much ambient light about except the campfire.

 

[David]

Contrary to what ckiang said, I think Canon's system is not weird. Av, Tv and M modes are advanced modes for intermediate to pro users. It's better to understand how the system works first before using it for important events.

If in Av mode, the camera defaults flash sync speed to 1/60, I might as well stick to P mode. And of cos, I don't think Nikon or Canon is superior either way. It's the photographer behind the camera that matters most. The important thing is to understand how your equipment works to fully utilize it.

 

[megaweb]

Canon EOS 30 Av also can sync to shutter speed of 1/125 sec

1. turn the mode to Custom function mode
2. select custom no. 9 and switch to 1
3. turn the mode to Av mode