Planning on adding an external flash unit to my A500 for some wildlife (mostly birds) photos using my Tamron 28-300. Don't even know where to begin. Would appreciate any recommendations re: brands, models, etc.
Thanks,
Rob
I would agree. A top of the range flash has a guide number of around 60 metres, which means at f/6.3 (the minimum for your lens at 300mm) and ISO 100, the flash would only be able to expose correctly up to 9.5 metres away before running out of light output.
Given you'll probably want f/8-f/11 for sharpness with that lens, you'll be struggling to adequately light a subject more than about 7 metres away. You can increase the ISO to increase the effective range of the flash, but even at ISO 800 you only get up to about 20 metres.
If you have a nice fast f/2.8 lens then you would be on firmer footing -- f/2.8 and ISO 800 would get you a theoretical range of around 60 metres.
Also note that if you are running the flash at full power (which these figures require) you'll be looking at somewhere in the region of a 6 second recharge time until the flash is ready to fire again, unless you buy an expensive high-power battery pack. Again, not ideal for fast-moving, difficult to frame subjects.
There's a guide number calculator here if you want to experiment with different settings -- enter a guide number (60 is about as high as on-camera flashguns go), your aperture and ISO, make sure the distance button is selected, and click calculate.
You'll also end up with quite flat light and a harsh shadow on anything behind your subject, unless you can get the flash off the camera (and as you'll have to aim it fairly accurately at the wildlife in question, that would be tricky without assistance).
I suspect a better investment would be in a fast (wide-aperture) zoom or prime telephoto lens -- unfortunately, this would also be a much larger investment.
You might also want to look at flash extenders like the Better Beamer. These are used extensively for birding and wildlife flash photography. See here for example.
Thanks all for your replies. (Tom, Better Beamer is definitely on the list.) Most of the work I do is in close, 10 to 20 feet with a fair amount of dense undergrowth etc. Have seen flash units with extenders used to good advantage for the kind of work I do but if I wrote down names of specific units being used and/or recommendations I've misplaced them.
Write a Reply
Sign up for a free account or Sign in to post a comment.
Tweets ahoy!
Join the Group
Pin With Me
What did you have in mind with the flash? i.e on camera, setup far away, how far from the subject, time of day you would be shooting
Given you'll probably want f/8-f/11 for sharpness with that lens, you'll be struggling to adequately light a subject more than about 7 metres away. You can increase the ISO to increase the effective range of the flash, but even at ISO 800 you only get up to about 20 metres.
If you have a nice fast f/2.8 lens then you would be on firmer footing -- f/2.8 and ISO 800 would get you a theoretical range of around 60 metres.
Also note that if you are running the flash at full power (which these figures require) you'll be looking at somewhere in the region of a 6 second recharge time until the flash is ready to fire again, unless you buy an expensive high-power battery pack. Again, not ideal for fast-moving, difficult to frame subjects.
There's a guide number calculator here if you want to experiment with different settings -- enter a guide number (60 is about as high as on-camera flashguns go), your aperture and ISO, make sure the distance button is selected, and click calculate.
http://dpanswers.com/content/genrc_flash_calc.php
You'll also end up with quite flat light and a harsh shadow on anything behind your subject, unless you can get the flash off the camera (and as you'll have to aim it fairly accurately at the wildlife in question, that would be tricky without assistance).
I suspect a better investment would be in a fast (wide-aperture) zoom or prime telephoto lens -- unfortunately, this would also be a much larger investment.
Getting a faster lens may also not be the solution as they bring there own problems.
They have flash, lens and camera body for hire.