# Is there a DSLR equivalent?



## charlesa (Apr 10, 2015)

Good morning, would like an opinion. Seeing the setup for these kind of shots and from information from the photographer, they shoot at f/8 at shutter set at 1/250, with a 100 mm lens (70 mm equivalent for 35 mm systems) using a Hasselblad 500 CM and a Mamiya Leaf digital back tethered shooting. It is also stated that the important thing to freeze the motion of the subject is the 1/2000 flash burst from studio packs, and this syncs with the leaf shutter inside the lens, whereas 35 mm DSLR systems only sync up to 1/250. Is there a way to achieve an equivalent result with 35 mm DSLR systems, as I believe Hasselblad, Mamiya back, lens and all the studio flash packs are quite expensive!


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## Maximilian (Apr 10, 2015)

charlesa said:


> Good morning, would like an opinion. Seeing the setup for these kind of shots and from information from the photographer, they shoot at f/8 at shutter set at 1/250, with a 100 mm lens (70 mm equivalent for 35 mm systems) using a Hasselblad 500 CM and a Mamiya Leaf digital back tethered shooting. It is also stated that the important thing to freeze the motion of the subject is the 1/2000 flash burst from studio packs, and this syncs with the leaf shutter inside the lens, whereas 35 mm DSLR systems only sync up to 1/250. Is there a way to achieve an equivalent result with 35 mm DSLR systems, as I believe Hasselblad, Mamiya back, lens and all the studio flash packs are quite expensive!


Hi charlesa!

You have only posted the setup but not the resulting picture, so I can just imagine how the resulting picture might look like from your highlighted quote.

The sync speed of a DSLR is somewhere around 1/250. This means that is the fastest shutter time where the shutter stays completely open. At faster times it is partly shut and moves over the sensor (If this was clear sorry for mentioning)
If you now use studio flashes with a shorter flash burst like the mentioned 1/2000, you can still freeze the motion if exposure settings are right and the flash is much brighter than the surrounding light, because then the motion blur during the 1/250 sync speed happens in "darkness" and is not displayed. 
So using a DSLR with studio flashes can get you similar results.

It becomes more difficult when using hot shoe flashes, because they don't have the power (joule) of the studio flashes and the burst times are sometimes slower. So you have not enough difference between flash burst and available light surrounding the scene. 
Two possibilities (but I am no studio expert):
1. Make the environment much darker, so the short flash burst is the only relevant light. But then AF etc. gets more difficult.
2. Use High speed flash sync for faster shutter speeds. But then a fast motion still might appear in slight motion blur. 

Hope, it helps.


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## charlesa (Apr 10, 2015)

I cannot find the resulting shot, but the author says f/8, 1/250. AF is not an issue as you pre-focus manually and the f/8 on a 70 mm lens sited far away from the subject gives enough depth of field at that distance. 1/2000 is the essential part, but I think speedlite flashes would not be up to the job seeing they do not have enough power.


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## Maximilian (Apr 10, 2015)

charlesa said:


> ... 1/2000 is the essential part, but I think speedlite flashes would not be up to the job seeing they do not have enough power.


It's all about distance, power needed and low surrounding light. 
As the speedlite flashes do not have so much power _energy_ (joule) the burst can be faster. So the 1/2000 should/could be possible.
For an 1000-Joule flash from Hensel I could find this:
http://hensel.eu/katalog/products/flash/compact-flashes/kompaktblitz-integra-1000-plus.html
Flash duration t 0,5 min. 1/1700 s
Flash Duration t 0,5 max. 1/700 s
A 250-Joule flash is faster though not that bright:
Flash duration t 0,5 min. 1/2400 s
Flash Duration t 0,5 max. 1/1000 s

I've found no information like that in the technical data of the Speedlite 600EX-RT and that's typical in specs for studio flashes. So I just had to guess.

_edited to replace "power" by "energy" because I was sloppy and used the term wrong. Thanks bbb34._


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## bbb34 (Apr 10, 2015)

*E = P T*

Joule is the good unit, but it indicates the light energy (not the power).

E = P T (energy is the product of power and time)
P = E / T 


For continuous light the power is interesting, because the product of light power and shutter time gives the amount of light (energy) available for the exposure.

For flashes it makes more sense to indicate the maximum output energy.

cu,
bbb


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## wyldeguy (Apr 10, 2015)

Short answer is yes. Long answer, use the lowest possible flash setting to have the fastest possible flash burst and you can even stop the wings on a hummingbird so humans are easy. I have done it with an 320ex and T3i so it should be no problem with an 600ex. With the 600ex you can actually control the power with its menu and controls. The only way to control the power on the 320 is through the camera menu and reducing the flash exposure which is way more complicated.


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## Zeidora (Apr 10, 2015)

The question is, whether you have a pure flash exposure or a mixed ambient/flash exposure.
With pure flash, the flash determines the exposure, so it is essentially irrelevant what the camera exposure is, as long as ambient light contribution is insignificant; I would call 5 stops below flash exposure as "insignificant".
As others have pointed out, shortest flash durations are at lowest power setting. If memory serves me well, full discharge takes on the order of 1/200s on many models, so with a 1/500s sync speed, you cut off ~half the light, lose 1 f-stop. Check manufacturer's data sheets on your specific unit.

In mixed light, exposure time matters. Then you have to ask yourself, what is the difference from a pure ambient light contribution perspective between 1/500 and 1/200. It may make a difference, it may not.

Re studio flash vs. compact flash, again, it depends. Most compact flashes don't have modeling lights, so it will be a bit more trial and error. Power is also quite a bit lower. Whether you could increase ISO depends how much noise you can tolerate, and how much you blow it up. You can hook up studio flashes to a dslr with PC sync cord no problem, then use flash meter to determine exposure.


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## privatebydesign (Apr 10, 2015)

$500 Paul C Buff Einsteins are as good as any "regular studio flashes", head and pack, monoblock, anything, they best systems costing 20 times as much too.

This guy has become the 'go to' commercial guy for this kind of thing and even with his anything budget he uses Einsteins. http://aurumlight.com/!galleries!milk

He also has some great videos on YouTube and an interesting blog.

The fact that the Hasselblad has a leaf shutter sync is entirely irrelevant in these kinds of shooting scenarios, you could do it with a 1/60 second sync camera from the film era.


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## charlesa (Apr 11, 2015)

Thank you for all the information. So for the sake of simplicity, let us say I am using a 5DSR (yeah right, but the client needs the prints huge) with a 70-200 mm f/2.8 II in studio, standing a bit far out tethered, lens set at 70 mm at f/8, ISO 100 and 1/250. I have an 11 foot high white background set up, with the main light coming from the side at 1/2000, two smaller lights to light the background. Side light will be about 2-3 metres from the dancers, and the shot will need some lighting power as it is about 3 x 3 m area. Focus is not an issue as I pre-focused on a spot and need the f/8 as I will have multiple dancers in the scene so I need the depth of field. How do I go about syncing all that?


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## LDS (Apr 13, 2015)

charlesa said:


> How do I go about syncing all that?



Depends on what light sources are you using. You need to use all flashes - if they are modern ones probably they will have their own wireless triggers (built in or as an accessory), or they can probably use external ones. Using flashes from the same manufacturer and compatibile with each other will make the setup far easier.
Older setup used photocells or plain old cables. Be aware, that depending on the technology, the wireless sync may well have its own upper shutter speed limit. As long as the only light that will be actually recorded is from the strobes, it doesn't matter - thereby you should ensure any modelling light or other light sources are off when the photo is taken.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Apr 13, 2015)

Generally, if there were a way to match the quality of a medium format camera with a DSLR, then MF cameras would not exist. A 500CM is a old Hasselblad film body, and the old lenses are cheap too, so it depends on which digital back you are dealing with. You could just use film and get superb results and the price should run under 1K for camera and 100mm lens (I bought one with four Zeiss lenses, three film backs, dozens of rolls of film, and lots of other accessories for $1700).

The camera is manual focus, and the lens shutter is limited to a slow speed, so the lights are stopping the action. High end lighting is usually rented, but you can buy lighting that will do the job for a reasonable price, but much more expensive than the basic camera and lens. 

In the final analysis, it all depends on the customer and the final usage of the image.

If you really want to get into this type of photography, then look at a Pentax 645Z. Its priced much lower than Hasselblad, Phase One, and Leaf, and has autofocus. It also has a high ISO capability which means you do not need those extremely powerful lights, and it will capture the same quality of image.


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## Tinky (Apr 17, 2015)

Easy Peasy.

Set your camera to it's fastest synch. Fire your studio flash.

There will not be enough ambient light to affect your exposure (which you will have metered using the flash function of your light meter) and so your effective exposure time is actually the duration of the flash cycle. 

Now although this synchs at 1/250th (depending on the camera) the burst of light is actually much shorter. Effectively recreating a very high shutter speed.


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## wopbv4 (Apr 17, 2015)

For what it worth:

Canon 580EX
Power μs s
1/1 4000.0 1/250
1/2 1088.0 1/919
1/4 484.0 1/2066
1/8 266.0 1/3759
1/16 166.0 1/6024
1/32 105.6 1/9470
1/64 71.6 1/13966
1/128 50.4 1/19841

So, you can get very fast flash speeds, but as described by others, power is low
So, if you are use 580 or 600s, you need more then one for studio work.
I go as far as four 600s in a softbox for main light, set at 1/4, which would give a level of approximately 100WS in studio light terms. That gives me an F11 at 1/250, iso 200, flash duration of 1/2000. This freezes most of movement of subject as long as the room is dark.

Hope this helps


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## TexPhoto (Apr 18, 2015)

Another way to do it with a DSLR is to use hot lights (not flashes just lights that stay on). Need a 1/2000 exposure, set it and shoot. Is it cheating?


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## drmikeinpdx (Apr 18, 2015)

charlesa said:


> How do I go about syncing all that?



If you are renting lighting equipment, you can just rent the wireless triggers at the same time. Most pros seem to use Pocket Wizards.

http://www.pocketwizard.com/products/transmitter_receiver/

I prefer the very inexpensive triggers like these (just picked up a transmitter and 3 receivers for about 30 bucks): 

http://www.amazon.com/Neewer-Wireless-TRIGGER-RECEIVERS-16-Channel/dp/B004RE3CFU/ref=sr_1_9?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1429367475&sr=1-9&keywords=wireless+flash+trigger

When I work in my relatively small studio, I only need to attach a single receiver to one of my Alien Bees and the flash from that one triggers the optical slave circuit on the other three. If you are shooting in a large space like the one in the photo above, it would probably be best to have a trigger on every light.

My biggest frustration when it comes to buying flash trigger receivers is making sure that they have the proper connector to hook up with the flash unit I want them to trigger. There are at least three different connectors and sometimes the specifications on the retail web sites don't explain which connectors a trigger will come with. Sometimes they include adapters and sometimes they don't.


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## sanj (Apr 19, 2015)

TexPhoto said:


> Another way to do it with a DSLR is to use hot lights (not flashes just lights that stay on). Need a 1/2000 exposure, set it and shoot. Is it cheating?



The 'hot light' units that can output equivalent brightness are large, expensive, require lots of electrical power/man power and hot. Impractical solution.


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## Tinky (Apr 20, 2015)

And might be fine if you have tungsten blondes, but things like HMI's and flouros have mains phase cycles, usually much slower than 1/250th. Your 1/250th would have to be in phase with what the lights are doing.


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## charlesa (Apr 20, 2015)

Constant lights are a no no, things get hot and you do not want sweaty dancers! Instead of going down the medium format solution, a 5DSR can get the job done it seems, but will need proper bitube strobe as a key light and two smaller lights to light the background evenly.


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## RLPhoto (Apr 20, 2015)

Flash duration is the key for stopping motion in a dim lit studio. Flash sync speeds are to control the mix of ambient light in a shot. So for him to freeze the fabric, the shutter speed doesn't matter because the pop of the flash is so short and powerful, it will freeze the motion and kill all the ambient light in the room. 

Sync speed becomes useful if your trying to mix broad daylight or very powerful Continuous lights with flash, as it a faster sync speed will give you more options to choose a shutter speed.

PCB Einsteins are the big elephant in the room for flash duration, short of broncolors 15k systems.


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## charlesa (Apr 21, 2015)

RLPhoto said:


> Flash duration is the key for stopping motion in a dim lit studio. Flash sync speeds are to control the mix of ambient light in a shot. So for him to freeze the fabric, the shutter speed doesn't matter because the pop of the flash is so short and powerful, it will freeze the motion and kill all the ambient light in the room.
> 
> Sync speed becomes useful if your trying to mix broad daylight or very powerful Continuous lights with flash, as it a faster sync speed will give you more options to choose a shutter speed.
> 
> PCB Einsteins are the big elephant in the room for flash duration, short of broncolors 15k systems.



So those are the two brands to consider? The person I know shoots Broncolor, with a soft satellite for key light too and studio packs. I believe it is quite expensive equipment to say the least for 3 lights, packs and umbrella...


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