Electronic shutter curtain, high speed flash sync

Started by Jokke_r, February 28, 2016, 04:55:17 PM

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Jokke_r

Seeing as a lot of the canon cameras are capable of silent shooting, which means they can do at least electronic first curtain shooting. And from what i've read it's designed to work in unison with the rear curtain mechanical shutter so that is still produces the appropriate slit for proper exposure.

Would rear curtain electronic shutter be possible with magic lantern in order to sync flash at higher shutter speeds?

Essentially what i would like is to use electronic shutter control for higher flash sync speeds. I mean pocket cameras with with no mechanical shutters are capable of this. If i'm not mistaken my old Canon Powershot G11 with completely electronic shutter was capable to sync flash up to 1/2000th.

I'm not sure what types of control magic lantern allows but it would essentially have to:
1. Initiate exposure electronically (now i know it's not a global shutter, but it starts from the top of the frame and runs down, i'm not sure how fast this shutter initiation is but if it can run faster than the mechanical shutter it already should make it possible to sync faster than 1/200 (5DmII))
2. After entire sensor is initiated, fire flash
3. Stop exposure as quick as possible, either electronically like in movie mode, or with mechanical shutter.

Is any of this possible if not then how come?

Why would this be usefull. Well using creative flash outdoors is always about overpowering the ambient light (sunlight) with flash light. And the only way to limit the ambient light without limiting the flash output is by shutter speed. If you could do this then thousands and thousands of dollars could be saved by not having to buy very expensive studio strobes with power packs that you have to carry around if you could just do the same thing with a single speedlite.

Jokke_r

Well i did some independent research and came to the conclusion that this is indeed impossible. The electronic shutter curtains seem to be incredibly slow.
I had no idea. I put the camera in movie mode with a shutter speed of 1/4000th and started firing my flash untill it was caught in the frame and it only covered like 20 pixel wide band. And i slowed the shutter speed some more and some more and while the flash coverage grew, not even at 1/60th of a second  with electronic shutter (in movie mode) is the whole sensor exposed at once.

I had no idea CMOS electronic shutter was this slow. But i guess that explains all the problems with rolling shutter.

mothaibaphoto

You need several consecutive flash fires. This is how high speed sync work. Up to 1/8000 with speedlights and cheap yongnuo adapters.