LOST....NEED HELP: Flash photography, equipments for X-T10

[Dr.Nipun]

Dear members,

As you may already noticed I have been posting new topics regularly about my queries, you already know I am a newbee in mirroeless/dslr world. But I have been reading articles, watching youtube videos to learn as much as I can. But now I am literally lost. I want to buy speedlight for my X-T10. But my budget is limited, so cannot afford a 100 or 200 USD speedlights. So I need some suggestions. But let me inform you my requirements as well as queries first:

 

1. I want to buy a speed light with "high speed sync" capability.

2. Heard a lot about Neewer TT560 & Yongnuo 560 IV, but do they support HSS?

3. There are lot of newer models (I guess as the model numbers are newer e.g. Yongnuo 568, Neewer 580 etc etc) of the above mentioned products, which should I go for?

4. I do not like the built-in flash with X-T10 because, even in at the lowest power, it produces enough light in relatively close proximity to produce unnatural or i should say unflattering colours. So if I don't want to use the built-in flash but want to use off-camera speedlight, how can I use that? As far as I understand, in slave mode I have to use the built-in flash to trigger the off-camera flash/flashes, isn't it? So do I need to buy some sort of wireless trigger or is there any cheaper way?

5. I am in a doubt with this whole HSS thing. If I need a light source at higher shutter speed, why not use a constant light souce i.e. LED flashes rather than conventional speed lights?

 

Please mention some model numbers of the products if you want to recommend any. Again thanks a lot guys in advance. You helped me a lot before and I know you will do the same this time also.

[George_P]

Dear Dr. Nipun,

If you use a "speedlite" as an optical slave, then yes, you would trigger it by the built-in flash of your X-T10. If you want to use it as a radio-controlled remote flash, you would have to buy a TX (transmitter) unit that would be mounted on your camera and a RX (receiver) unit that would be mounted on your fash. There are many options available, all mentioned in other threads in the Flash Photography section of these forums by people who know much more about it than myself.

AFAIK only one of them supports TTL metering (through the lens - the camera fires a pre-flash to meter the scene and then adjusts exposure for the actual flash lit shot) but that is pretty expensive. The others enable you to remotely fire the flash but you must set the exposure and the power of the flash yourself, in some cases that can be done also through the remote system.

If your budget is tight at the moment I would suggest: get the Meike 320 for Fuji and use it mounted on the camera and tilted upwards to bounce off the ceiling or with a diffusor or softbox. It supports TTL so it is easy. Or use it as an optical slave. Works very well, at least for me. You can then get a TX and one or more RX and other flashes later on.

I hope this is a good start for you until the flash experts tell you more. But read the other threads. Cheers.

George

[Dr.Nipun]

Dear Dr. Nipun,

If you use a "speedlite" as an optical slave, then yes, you would trigger it by the built-in flash of your X-T10. If you want to use it as a radio-controlled remote flash, you would have to buy a TX (transmitter) unit that would be mounted on your camera and a RX (receiver) unit that would be mounted on your fash. There are many options available, all mentioned in other threads in the Flash Photography section of these forums by people who know much more about it than myself.

AFAIK only one of them supports TTL metering (through the lens - the camera fires a pre-flash to meter the scene and then adjusts exposure for the actual flash lit shot) but that is pretty expensive. The others enable you to remotely fire the flash but you must set the exposure and the power of the flash yourself, in some cases that can be done also through the remote system.

If your budget is tight at the moment I would suggest: get the Meike 320 for Fuji and use it mounted on the camera and tilted upwards to bounce off the ceiling or with a diffusor or softbox. It supports TTL so it is easy. Or use it as an optical slave. Works very well, at least for me. You can then get a TX and one or more RX and other flashes later on.

I hope this is a good start for you until the flash experts tell you more. But read the other threads. Cheers.

George

Mr. George,

Thank u so much for your valuable suggestion. But you didn't touch the topic "high speed sync" which is my main concern actually. I actually don't necessarily need TTL.

Again thanks. If possible, share your thoughts on HSS too. Take care.

 

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[George_P]

X-T10 only supports 1/180 officially, 1/250 after firmware 4.3, but the Nissin i40 supports manual HSS. Meike - I haven't tried how fast it can go, I've only had it a week or so and I used it in the evening indoors. I am on the road so I can't try now. Perhaps an ND filter would help for what you want to do ? To reduce ambient light and thus slow down the SS so you can then balance between the ambient and flash by setting the power of the flash and therefore you would not need HSS. But if you need fast SS to freeze motion then - no. But other people know more than me about this, I am not a photog, I am only learning. Look here:

http://www.fuji-x-forum.com/topic/740-nissin-i40-hss-on-xt1-help/

http://www.fuji-x-forum.com/topic/2396-in-camera-hss-firmware-data-already-exits-on-fuji-x-t1-x-pro2-x-t10-which-means/

http://www.fuji-x-forum.com/topic/2496-which-trigger-support-hss-mode/

http://www.fuji-x-forum.com/topic/1160-roboshoot-sync-speeds-with-the-x100-series-works-at-all-speeds-up-to-14000s/

But 100-200$ won't get you very far. That is why I started on the Meike. Very good value for its price.

brgds

G.

Edited May 9, 2016 by George

[George_P]

...there is a funny little accessory that fits into the bracket and adds a diffusor before the built-in flash - it preserves the space needed for it to pop up. Would make the built-in flash softer and you could use it to optically fire the off-camera flash till you get some radio triggers.

http://www.dx.com/p/3-color-pop-up-flash-diffuser-kit-blue-white-yellow-154822#.VzEFk_BXerU

It costs next to nothing.

[George_P]

FlashQ radio trigger from Lightpixlabs works at 1/200 with my X-T10 and Meike 320. I suppose you want faster than that but anyway, just to let you know.

[Dr.Nipun]

X-T10 only supports 1/180 officially, 1/250 after firmware 4.3, but the Nissin i40 supports manual HSS. Meike - I haven't tried how fast it can go, I've only had it a week or so and I used it in the evening indoors. I am on the road so I can't try now. Perhaps an ND filter would help for what you want to do ? To reduce ambient light and thus slow down the SS so you can then balance between the ambient and flash by setting the power of the flash and therefore you would not need HSS. But if you need fast SS to freeze motion then - no. But other people know more than me about this, I am not a photog, I am only learning. Look here:

http://www.fuji-x-forum.com/topic/740-nissin-i40-hss-on-xt1-help/

http://www.fuji-x-forum.com/topic/2396-in-camera-hss-firmware-data-already-exits-on-fuji-x-t1-x-pro2-x-t10-which-means/

http://www.fuji-x-forum.com/topic/2496-which-trigger-support-hss-mode/

http://www.fuji-x-forum.com/topic/1160-roboshoot-sync-speeds-with-the-x100-series-works-at-all-speeds-up-to-14000s/

But 100-200$ won't get you very far. That is why I started on the Meike. Very good value for its price.

brgds

G.

Mr. George, thanks for so many good info. I am planning to buy the Neewer one now and keeping other thoughts away for a moment. But that pop up flash diffuser is great. Thanks again. Please keep in touch.

...there is a funny little accessory that fits into the bracket and adds a diffusor before the built-in flash - it preserves the space needed for it to pop up. Would make the built-in flash softer and you could use it to optically fire the off-camera flash till you get some radio triggers.

http://www.dx.com/p/3-color-pop-up-flash-diffuser-kit-blue-white-yellow-154822#.VzEFk_BXerU

It costs next to nothing.

FlashQ radio trigger from Lightpixlabs works at 1/200 with my X-T10 and Meike 320. I suppose you want faster than that but anyway, just to let you know.

 

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[Dr.Nipun]

Hey @George, I need a suggestion. As I am total newbee in flash photography, I don't understand a few basic things yet. See sometimes to use an off camera flash in an indoor situation or sometimes outdoor low light, having low ISO causes the display to go almost black. So I cannot see anything as this X-T10 has no OVF. So how can I focus on subjects or compose my shot?

 

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[George_P]

Hullo,

 

In the menu, go to the first blue tab (set-up menu #1), then scroll to Screen Set-up, then choose between Preview Exposure in Manual Mode: On / Off.

 

When you are in a dark environment (whether you want to shoot with flash or without flash, e.g. with a long shutter speed on a tripod), if you set it to Off you will get an amplified view and you will see the scene. You mentioned an OVF like on an SLR, well there you would not be able to do this, if it is dark, you see darkness. You would have to use an autofocus assist light, either on the camera or on an attached flash, which in some circumstances can be undesirable and it would not be effective for distant subjects anyway.

 

On the other hand, if you set it to On, you see the direct effect that your changes in SS, Aperture or ISO have on your exposure, so you can have an idea beforehand of what your shot will look like. You even see the effects of different film simulations, depth of field etc.

 

These are some of the advantages of the mirrorless concept. Manual page 108.

Edited June 6, 2016 by George

[Dr.Nipun]

Hullo,

 

In the menu, go to the first blue tab (set-up menu #1), then scroll to Screen Set-up, then choose between Preview Exposure in Manual Mode: On / Off.

 

When you are in a dark environment (whether you want to shoot with flash or without flash, e.g. with a long shutter speed on a tripod), if you set it to Off you will get an amplified view and you will see the scene. You mentioned an OVF like on an SLR, well there you would not be able to do this, if it is dark, you see darkness. You would have to use an autofocus assist light, either on the camera or on an attached flash, which in some circumstances can be undesirable and it would not be effective for distant subjects anyway.

 

On the other hand, if you set it to On, you see the direct effect that your changes in SS, Aperture or ISO have on your exposure, so you can have an idea beforehand of what your shot will look like. You even see the effects of different film simulations, depth of field etc.

 

These are some of the advantages of the mirrorless concept. Manual page 108.

Thanks a lot Mr. George.

 

Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk

[aceflibble]

If you ever decide you want to go further with flash, and you get a little more money, take a look at Cactus flashes. They are getting an update soon to support HSS on all systems, they support remote control for all systems, and have a host of other features; however, they do cost a bit more than Neewer/Yongnuo flashes, so leave them alone for now but keep them in mind for when/if you decide to advance your flash work.

[Dook]

5. Yes, you can use continuous light, even sun. In fact, that's how a flash works in HSS mode - pulsing light at a very high rate during exposure. Read this very informative article:

http://wiki.pocketwizard.com/?title=Understanding_HyperSync_and_High_Speed_Sync

I think Yongnuo 685 with YN622 contoller falls in your price range. But, be aware that a lot of flash power is lost in HSS mode, so maybe you'll end up needing a couple of flashes combined.

There is another solution, and that's to buy Fujifilm x100 which doesn't have these limitations, since it uses leaf shutter built in the lens.

[Nastavnik]

I have been thinking about continuous lighting with leds as well. I don't know if the cheaper ones have enough power to be useful outdoors. When I need a higher speed sync, I use a X100s as suggested above. It does sync at any speed. With the tele lens adapter, one can even get nice portraits.

 

On a side note, I use the TTL triggers by serene automation. On the XT1, they now allow for continuous shooting, though I have not tested them in a real life situation, just to check that it worked. They are expensive, but TTL, and will work with fuji and nikon flashes (as well as some others, but those are the ones I have).

 

I had missed the sync speed update for the XT1. Just did it. Thanks George_P for the heads up.

[aceflibble]

As far as continuous light goes, to give you an example of the sort of light power you get out of a 1000w (equivalent) LED fresnel light with the light concentrated into a medium spotlight, the settings I typically end up with are ISO 400, f/2.8, 1/60th. Obviously, that's nowhere near the kind of exposure you can get from a speedlight, let alone a studio monolight/power pack. That's a continuous light which costs over £1,000. The 650w version, which still costs over £700, gives about 2/3rds of a stop less light. You can increase the light by using more lights or reflecting more of the ambient light on your subject, but it'll never add up to enough to use a faster shutter. Suffice to say, continuous light is very much not a good substitute for HSS if you need high shutter speeds. Quite the opposite; continuous light is for people who are happy to work at slow shutter speeds. If you want to keep the shutter speed, high, you need to use flash of some kind.

 

Even so, bear in mind that not all HSS systems work quite the same. Most do pulse the light, but some only pulse the bear minimum number of times, while others will pulse a lot. How effective a unit is at HSS also depends on its power source, triggers, shutter delay... basically, most HSS shooting works fine, but don't be surprised if it fails you at some point. When you're trying to expose an image at 1/500th of a second or faster, there's a lot which can easily go wrong.

[Dr.Nipun]

So many knowledgeable replies... thanks everyone... at present I am settled with Yongnuo without HSS. I am keeping an eye on Cactus though. Thanks again everyone.

 

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