What would cause this?

[DeLeon]

I was in the middle of a shoot the other day and all of my shots started looking like this. I hadn't changed any camera settings. The only thing I had done was add a 430ex to the hot shoe. After I went in and reset all of the settings, this didn't happen again. Any thoughts? Luckily I was abel to keep from getting flustered and the client never knew there was a problem.

[kenmyers70]

My guess is that Shutter speed was faster than the cross-sync. The flash was not on during the whole exposure.

[andyz]

Is this the curtain, the shutter and flash were not in sync?

[rogerfsmith]

What does the shutter speed show for the shots like the one posted? Was it perhaps higher than the 1/250th?
Cheers,
Roger

[jonnydonut]

In lament terms.

That black thing is the mirror or curtain, It's folding up and coming down faster than your flash is firing.
Basically, it's covering up the sensor before the light reaches the subject.

Look at the properties of the photograph. I can almost guarantee the shutter is faster than 1/250th of a second. Def faster than 1/125. The "sync speed" that people refer to is how fast you can have the shutter without "that" (exactly what you posted) happening.

[jdwme]

it is, the shutter speed is showing at 1/1000th, that is pretty fast.

[boxofrocks]

I was gonna say the exif data showed 1/1000 ss. That's too fast for any flash sync.

By the way, what are lament terms?

[DeLeon]

Wow..thanks guys....Im not sure how that happened I usually shoot in aperture priority. I must have bumped the dial over to Tv mode.

Still getting used to this 40D over my Nikon.

[boxofrocks]

Serves you right for going over to the dark side when Nikon has two great new cameras coming out.

[CaptainTom]

You might want to bone up on high speed synch.
Here's a quick over view.

[DeLeon]

Originally Posted by boxofrocks

Serves you right for going over to the dark side when Nikon has two great new cameras coming out.

LOL...I know I know...


My D50 wasn't cutting it for me any more and I couldn't wait for the D300. I do love this Canon though.

[DeLeon]

Originally Posted by CaptainTom

You might want to bone up on high speed synch.
Here's a quick over view.

Thanks Tom!

I'll give it a read.

[richflo1]

Originally Posted by CaptainTom

You might want to bone up on high speed synch.
Here's a quick over view.

Great link..thanks