What delay is FP?

[RLangham]

This surprised me so I looked up the Spottie's highest flash sync speed. 1/60. Yikes! Copal Square shutters sync at speeds up to 1/125. Some newer 35mm SLRs' shutters sync at up to 1/250. Are there faster ones? Name names, please, and give numbers.

Not a bit surprising. I've owned very few cameras that sync above 1/60. Even the Nikon F2 only syncs about 1/90 for X flashes, and I guarantee you it does atrociously slow sync speeds for M and F.

 

[shutterfinger]

The suggested sync speed for flash bulbs is 1/30 second or slower.

At some point in time FPS in 35mm cameras changed from horizontal travel to verticle travel alowing for faster sync times due to the shorter distance the shutter has to travel. To increase to higher speeds the mechanics have improved allowing faster shutter curtain travel times. Newer curtains are segmented and fold up like a window blind while older curtains rolled up like a shade.

 

[RLangham]

The suggested sync speed for flash bulbs is 1/30 second or slower.

At some point in time FPS in 35mm cameras changed from horizontal travel to verticle travel alowing for faster sync times due to the shorter distance the shutter has to travel. To increase to higher speeds the mechanics have improved allowing faster shutter curtain travel times. Newer curtains are segmented and fold up like a window blind while older curtains rolled up like a shade.

I mean, yeah, I own the original Copal Square camera, the Mamiya/Nikon Nikkorex F, as well as its spiritual successor the Nikkormat FTn. I've also seen one of the very first electronic Copal Squares in the Yashica TL Electro X and a bad Eastern Bloc copy of a mechanical metal blind shutter in the Praktica TL3 (viscerally unpleasant to use.)

A good number of my cameras, though, are eastern bloc designs with a Leica II shutter design lineage and an X speed of 1/30 (sometimes marked 1/25). Few of my cameras aside from the two Nikons with Gopal Squares can really do controllable daylight flash fill without sacrificing a lot of flash power by using slow film or ND filters.

 

[Dan Fromm]

Few of my cameras aside from the two Nikons with Gopal Squares can really do controllable daylight flash fill without sacrificing a lot of flash power by using slow film or ND filters.

A propos of that, I was a bit more comfortable doing flower and insect photography outdoors with KM and electronic flash after my Nik'mat FTN was stolen and I replaced it with an FM2N. Ghost images were suddenly one stop smaller a problem. One of the reasons I've dithered so long about getting a digital SLR is that few have low enough ISO settings. Some Nikons now go to ISO 32 and I guess that's good enough even though when I was shooting KM I sometimes found myself wanting ISO 10. As you said, ND filters ...

 

[BradS]

A propos of that, I was a bit more comfortable doing flower and insect photography outdoors with KM and electronic flash after my Nik'mat FTN was stolen and I replaced it with an FM2N. Ghost images were suddenly one stop smaller a problem. One of the reasons I've dithered so long about getting a digital SLR is that few have low enough ISO settings. Some Nikons now go to ISO 32 and I guess that's good enough even though when I was shooting KM I sometimes found myself wanting ISO 10. As you said, ND filters ...

KM ???

 

[RLangham]

KM ???

I assumed it meant Kodachrome but I'm curious too.

 

[Dan Fromm]

KM ???

How quickly we forget. Kodachrome 25.

 

[RLangham]

How quickly we forget. Kodachrome 25.

I wouldn't become a photographer until six or seven years after the last KM lab shut down! Some of my baby pictures were on KM but that's the extent to which I have ever encountered it!

 

[Oren Grad]

Some newer 35mm SLRs' shutters sync at up to 1/250. Are there faster ones? Name names, please, and give numbers.

The Nikon F6 (along with many Nikon digital cameras) supports Nikon's Auto FP High-Speed Sync feature with compatible dedicated flashes. The feature works up to the maximum speed of the camera's mechanical shutter. You could argue that it's "cheating" - the flash emits a series of pulses to follow the moving slit across the entire curtain travel.

https://www.nikonimgsupport.com/eu/BV_article?articleNo=000004909&configured=1&lang=en_GB

 

[BradS]

How quickly we forget. Kodachrome 25.

Mmmmm, Yes, I see. I never cared for Kodachrome....always thought it looked like shit....never understood all the fuss...I know, Heresy!
I'm sure a pitch fork wielding mob will come to my house and crucify me later this evening!

 

[Donald Qualls]

Some FP shutters sync slower than that. A Kiev 4 (or a Contax II) syncs at 1/25 (likely related to the Zeiss design using both curtain slowing and slit widening as the speed goes below 1/50). And we aren't even talking about big shutters like a Speed...

 

[Dan Fromm]

Mmmmm, Yes, I see. I never cared for Kodachrome....always thought it looked like shit....never understood all the fuss...I know, Heresy!
I'm sure a pitch fork wielding mob will come to my house and crucify me later this evening!

Tastes differ. Nowhere is it written that anyone has to like what I like.

I never much liked Kodachrome 64 or 200. If I needed a reversal film faster than ISO 25 went to any of several E6 emulsions.

 

[Dan Fromm]

The Nikon F6 (along with many Nikon digital cameras) supports Nikon's Auto FP High-Speed Sync feature with compatible dedicated flashes. The feature works up to the maximum speed of the camera's mechanical shutter. You could argue that it's "cheating" - the flash emits a series of pulses to follow the moving slit across the entire curtain travel.

https://www.nikonimgsupport.com/eu/BV_article?articleNo=000004909&configured=1&lang=en_GB

I could be mistaken but I think that some Olympus SLRs used that trick before Nikon's version came to market.

 

[Dan Fromm]

I wouldn't become a photographer until six or seven years after the last KM lab shut down! Some of my baby pictures were on KM but that's the extent to which I have ever encountered it!

Right. Some never had the opportunity to learn.

 

[Oren Grad]

I could be mistaken but I think that some Olympus SLRs used that trick before Nikon's version came to market.

You're right - Olympus Super FP Flash mode, which similarly requires a compatible dedicated flash to provide the pulse sequence. OM-4Ti at least, not sure how far back it goes.

 

[wiltw]

I could be mistaken but I think that some Olympus SLRs used that trick before Nikon's version came to market.

Yup, Olympus OM-4 with the F-280 flash in the late 1980's...it pulsed the flash so that the slit of the shutter curtains could all have light from the flash.
Interestingly, due to power loses due to pulsing, the world gave ho-hum response to the flash methodology...until digital revived the methodology in the Canon HSS, and suddenly the world thought it was great!