E-PL1 - Shutter Speed & Flash Question

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nudibranco
Sorry for any confusion. The UFL-2 works in RC mode linked to the housing by fibre optic. I have the 110a in slave mode linked to the UFL-2 with fibre optic cable stuck on the outside of the UFL-2 diffuser. This lets me use the in camera flash power +5 to -5 compensation in the rc mode and the ufl-2 compensation of +3 to -3 giving an adjustment of +8 to -8, the 110a copies the increase/decrease in slave mode.
The shutter sync speed for the UFL-2 works up to 1/2000 BUT the 110a will only sync to 1/160 so above 1/160 to 1/2000 I use just the UFL-2.
 
Getting back to the original question ... the E-pl1 has an electronic focal-plane shutter. Focal-plane shutters cause a limitation in flash sync speeds due to their design (basically, a moving slit that travels across the film/sensor plane). DSLRs also have a limitation. Adjusting the shutter speed on a focal-plane shutter increases/decreases the width of the slit. As the speed goes up the slit gets narrower. Eventually, you reach a speed that the flash burst only illuminates a portion of the sensor. In other words, as the flash goes off, the burst strikes only the portion of the sensor that is currently uncovered by the "slit" as it travels acoss the sensor plane. The High Speed Sync feature actually fires the flash multiple times in tiny bursts to illuminate the "slit" as it moves across the sensor.
Here are some links you may find helpful:

Flash Sync Speed
Focal-plane shutter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

here's a little "movie" of the shutter in action:
E-PL1 antishock
 
It does sound like what I thought was the issue, IS the issue -- that is, the Inon D2000 strobe and E-PL1 is stuck at 1/160th max.

As I wrote earlier, the workshop instructor made the following basic statement -- Shutter speed controls the background while Aperture controls the foreground. So, if I wanted to have a dark background, in order to "pop" the foreground image, I'd use a higher shutter speed which would decrease the amount of ambient light in the image. The foreground, however, being lit by the strobe would be properly lit and with a high f-stop, a nice depth of field.

In the Red Sea, where there is a lot of ambient light, this was an issue. OTOH, here in the PNW, with little ambient light, this probably won't be that much of an issue and matching the 1/160th shutter, low ISO and appropriate f-stop, I should be able to get the "pop" I want. But it would be nice to be able to have a higher shutter speed with the flash.

Query -- is this a software issue or, in fact, a mechanical/hardware issue? If software, then maybe, perhaps, someone smart, might hack it?
 
cardog:
That is odd. I can take my XZ-1 all the way up up 1/2000 while using the flash.
Click to expand...

we just realized that my wifes camera(xz-1) can not go past f 8 is that correct?
 
Peter Guy:
It does sound like what I thought was the issue, IS the issue -- that is, the Inon D2000 strobe and E-PL1 is stuck at 1/160th max.

Query -- is this a software issue or, in fact, a mechanical/hardware issue? If software, then maybe, perhaps, someone smart, might hack it?
Click to expand...

It's a mechanical (electro-mechanical) limitation. You could always do deep dives or night dives (grin).
 
brucetrinity:
Keep in mind that f/8 is probably not the sweet spot of the lens. I haven't looked at reviews/tests but it is more likely to be f/5.6 or thereabouts.
Click to expand...

Thnx.
 
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