Flash Sync Speed Now & In The Future

With current Pentax cameras flash sync being maxed out at 1/80th I was wondering if this is down to the cameras software or the shutter mechanism its self.

My question is, could the flash sync speed be increased to 1/250th via software / firmware update?

Although a Pentax FF model is becoming a bit of a holly grail, if and when Pentax do release a FF model will its flash sync speed increase to 1/250th?

The Pentax sync speed is 1/180th and imo is fast enough, the flash itself will freeze most things and you can always reduce the speedlight output in some cases down to 1/64th for even quicker flash duration.

For portraiture I still use 1/125 as the Chinese triggers cant cope with anything higher.

My chinese triggers go up to 1/180.

I think a lot of the limitation comes down to the shutter mechanism. Higher than 1/200 and you might start to get black bands from the sutter.

Interestingly some compact cameras with electronic shutters have no such restriction. The Olympus XZ2 for example. Which is why it is frustrating that Pentax released the MX1 without a flippin' hot shoe - because in all other respects it's an XZ2 clone!

Edit - you have the option of HSS on PTTL capable flashguns of course.

Agree, I've a Fuji X100s and that'll sync at any speed up to 1/4000 sec.

It's usually only focal plane shutters that need slow syncs.
It not a fault it's the way the shutter is designed to work.

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I wish pentax would just get off thier butts and make an 85 1.4 soft focus leaf shutter lens

have it soft wide open, sharper at the center than the edges, rounded blades, have it sharper as you stop it down and have it with a leaf shutter built in.

pop it on, set camera to live view for set up and have it shoot to 1/4000 sec with full flash sync

then release a 28 mm version later...

The sync speed is a limitation of focal plane shutters, and for serious flash users it is not really much of a limitation at all . If you want to shoot with a Pentax at a higher shutter speed buy a Q

All previous Pentax FF cameras had a sync speed of 1/60 or 1/125 iirc

If you go back about 45 years, Zenit cameras had an X sync of 1/30 sec., so I don't see any reasons to complain with 1/180.

The speed limitation is a byproduct of the focal plane shutter. To overcome this limitation on large format SLR, some manufacturers (including Pentax) went as far as putting a leaf shutter in some of their medium format lenses.

As the crazy canuck said Pentax had a leaf shutter lens to fit the 645. I had a 75mm leaf shutter lens for my 645 which allowed me to use flash at 1/500th. sec. even though the normal flash speed was 1/60th. sec with the normal focal plane shutter. Via its electrical connections it made the camera shoot at 1/8th. sec. and within that 1/8th.sec the lens leaf shutter fired at whatever speed you set it at as long as it was faster than 1/8th sec. The slight disadvantage was that you had to connect the flash via a cable (No problem as I was using a hammerhead gun anyway) and you had to "cock" the lens each time you used it.
With the 540 gun you can set it to strobe (High speed flash) and shoot faster if you want to.
CHEERS Vic.

The Z-1 had a sync speed of 1/250th sec. , but considering how
little interest there is in that camera and people seem to
prefer ones with 1/60th second sync speed I don't think
faster sync speed is of any importance as a selling point!

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What matters more is the specific applications where you might need higher speeds. Am I right in thinking that the main limitation of a maximum sync speed is in bright conditions when you don't want to stop right down but need flash for some fill? The classic example of this would be portraits in the sunshine where you need fill flash but want a wide aperture also. We had some overexposed examples on a thread recently.

With a decent flashgun fitted you'll have HSS available, which gives a longer flash burst (or rapid bursts) to 'fill - in' for the whole duration the sensor is exposed (1/500th, 1/1000th etc), with some power loss as a consequence.

For those like me without a modern flashgun, the interesting question is why can't we have HSS on the built-in flash? We do have trailing sync, which is quite sophisticated for built in I'd have thought - why not HSS? Maybe it is to do with the available power - with a GN of 13 maybe it'd drop too much, although its mostly for fill-in purposes, so I wonder? Anyone ever wanted HSS with the built-in before?

There is not enough room in the camera for the capacitor bank that is needed for HSS.