Sony Alpha 300 high shutter speed problems

[Chrisalpha300]

Hey all,

Ive recently purchased an Alpha 300 and im really impressed with it. ive just finished my first year of photography at college and so bought myself a DSLR to help.

However, ive recently been trying to photograph indoor shots that have needed shutter speeds of at least 1/1600 and no matter what setting i have it on (even on shuterspeed priority) there seems to be a lack of light even with aperture at its smallest 5.6 stops.

I have tried to use the flash with it on manual but as soon as i switch the flash on, it automaticly changes the shutterspeed to 1/160 (much too slow for what i need) and i can not adjust the shutterspeed any faster.

If anyone has any idea on how i can get a fast shutter speed in low light conditions, or even how to enable the flash at high shutter speed, it would be much appreciated. As i say im a beginner and am really into photography but this problem has really got to me.

Many thanks

Chris

[Canuck935]

Hi Chris,

You have the right idea, you'll need to use large apertures (smaller f/stop numbers) to allow for faster shutter speeds. Also, you'll need to increase the ISO. How high you need to go with the ISO depends on how dark the conditions are. Do note that noise increases as you go higher in ISO, so you lose some image quality.

Another option is to find a faster lens. Look for a MInolta 50mm f/1.7 or f/1.4 lens on ebay. They're easy to come across and are very reasonably priced.

To obtain faster shutter speeds when using flash, you will need to get an external unit. Something such as the HVL-F42AM or HVL-F58AM. Also look for the discontinued HVL-F36AM and HVL-F56AM. Also Minolta 3600HS and 5600HS. All of these units can sync with all shutter speeds.

[OldClicker]

You need some serious light to use 1/1600 (and it must be something moving really fast).

Also, if it's dark enough, the shutter doesn't matter. Set the flash up to give the required exposure time. That's the idea behind the flash shutter speed - just open it up at let the flash limit the time.

TF

[pisco]

In other thread somebody gave an excelent explanation about flash and shutter speed. The conclusion is somehow that no matter what shutterspeed you have, the action is going to be frozen by the flash strobe. You might do a search on this topic.
Otherwise, as Canuck said, you need an external flash for hi speed sync (faster than 1/160, and if you have SS on it's 1/120 I think)