Sony is lying about flash sync speed on Sony A7RII

[hasselblad123]

Don't be fooled by the specs 1/250 flash sync speed, it is really 1/200.  Maybe not a big deal for some of you, but for me it is enough that I returned my Sony A7Rii and am sticking with Nikon for a while longer.  With Nikon D810 I can push flash sync speed to 1/320 with a small black bar at the bottom which isn't a big deal because I do it on location.  This allows me to balance the background(ambient) with shallow depth of field and still get the subjects face and body lit.  Sony has another issue for me which is the black bar shows up at the top of the frame so you can't push it to 1/320 or even 1/250 or the subjects face wont be lit.  I contacted Unique photo and they got the same results when they replicated the test.  They contacted Sony and were told that it does indeed sync to 1/250 when using a Sony flash, leaving us Profoto users, and other Pros out in the cold.  This is really disappointing because I was excited to get the camera and saved a couple months to buy it as well as sold some gear.  

[Singingsnapper]

I think lying is a bit strong.  They weren't lying if sync flash is 1/250.  It would be a bit like saying that eye detection not working with my Tamron is them lying about that feature.  Not to rub salt in the wound, but when investing in a completely new system, I would never sell old gear that I needed.  If you had to do that in order to afford it, then you couldn't really afford it without taking what I'd consider to be an unacceptable risk.  When I changed from Canon to Nikon, I didn't sell any gear at all until I was sure I was happy with it.  I have since moved from Nikon being my main camera apart from 645D to Sony being my back up to my 645Z.  I held on to a lot of my Nikon gear until I was sure I would say with the Sony...

[Wesley]

Doesn't Profoto have high powered packs for daylight HSS?

[zlatko]

It's not unusual for third party flashes to sync a little slower than same-brand flashes.  Sounds like the spec is correct — and based on a Sony flash, which is not unreasonable.  A manufacturer can't spec their sync speed based on all of the 3rd party manufacturers.

[Endos]

Don't be fooled by the specs 1/250 flash sync speed, it is really 1/200.  Maybe not a big deal for some of you, but for me it is enough that I returned my Sony A7Rii and am sticking with Nikon for a while longer.  With Nikon D810 I can push flash sync speed to 1/320 with a small black bar at the bottom which isn't a big deal because I do it on location.  This allows me to balance the background(ambient) with shallow depth of field and still get the subjects face and body lit.  Sony has another issue for me which is the black bar shows up at the top of the frame so you can't push it to 1/320 or even 1/250 or the subjects face wont be lit.  I contacted Unique photo and they got the same results when they replicated the test.  They contacted Sony and were told that it does indeed sync to 1/250 when using a Sony flash, leaving us Profoto users, and other Pros out in the cold.  This is really disappointing because I was excited to get the camera and saved a couple months to buy it as well as sold some gear.  

Not sure about the A7RII, but my A900 has 1/250 flash sync only when IBIS is OFF, in other case is 1/200. Maybe is the same with the A7RII...

[storyteller]

Same with the A7. It is disappointing but with 1st party flashes it hasn't been a problem. Of course I'm not crazy about Sony 1st party flashes so I choose to live with the slight drop in top shutter speed. I don't consider it lying but 1/320 even with a crop would be nice.

[i9zero]

With Nissin Di700a, I an able to get 1/250 without turning on HSS.

 

Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk

[adpo]

Do you have EFC turned on? Turning that off should give you full sync speed. I had a similar issue when using the a7s with flash and with EFC turned on.

[Batis]

My Yongnuo's work fine with EFC at 1/250

[markophoto]

If you are triggering wirelessly many radio triggers have some latency that reduces the maximum flash sync. 

 

You can get the maximum flash sync if you use a sync cord or an optical slave triggered by an on camera flash.

 

I use Canon 5DmkIIIs and all of the 5D models never synced at 1/200 when using ANY radio triggers. They were all fine when using on camera flash or sync cords.

[sabesh]

Can't you use HSS for your purposes?

 

Sent using my Samsung Galaxy Note 4

[Jay968]

What markophoto said is correct. Any chance you are using a pocket wizard or some other wireless trigger? With one of these the synch speed does indeed drop down to 1/200.