broncolor Move 1200L battery power pack offers the Worlds shortest flash duration of 1/8,000 (T 0.1) ( 1/20,000 T0.5)
To achieve shortest flash duration on MOVE 1200L do the following. (This set of instructions is not applicable for Hyper Sync Flash Photography)
1> broncolor MOVE 1200L is the only battery pack in the world, which allows you to tweak the flash duration of the exposure (keeping the exposure same), so when shooting short flash duration, make sure that you go into Move 1200L Menu, access Flash duration T 0.1 and set it to “min” minimum.
2> Make sure every flash used have similar power and flash duration. ( if you using multiple battery packs then all should be set on T 0.1 “min”)
Higher the power of the flash longer the flash duration you get. So in case if you are using three lamp heads on the set, and one of them is on setting 5.0, second one at 8 then you can not get the short flash duration. as the head two will totally over power first head and you will get the longer duration in the image. Keep in mind that the lamp head with the (highest power) longest duration is your native flash duration and that’s what you will get. The shorter flash duration resides within the longer flash duration. To get shortest flash duration, ensure that all of your lamp heads are running on similar power settings.
3> Do not try to mix different kind of flash lights with different flash duration. e.g. if you use Move 1200L with a short flash duration to light a model’s face, then don’t use any other longer flash duration light ( irrespective of brand) ( even at the same flash output ) as a side light or fill in light. the longer flash duration will totally overlap the shorter flash duration.
4> As explained above, higher power will give you longer flash duration. So in case if you are shooting a liquid splash and you have set your Move 1200L on power setting 5.0 and you feel the flash output is not enough and you need to get more power out of the Move 1200L. then do not increase the power of the pack to 6.0 ( 1 stop higher ) instead, add another lamp head with power setting 5.0. this will give you ( 5.0 + 5.0 = 6.0 ) so you will get one stop higher power and still you will maintain the same short flash duration. Now in case if you can’t have 2 different lamp heads at 5.0 + 5.0 (e.g. you are using a soft box ) then it is recommended to use the “Pulso Twin” bi-tube/bi-cable lamp head, which will give you two flash tubes in the same lamp head. By using “Pulso Twin” bi-tube/bi-cable Lamphead, you can achieve double power keeping the same flash duration. ( this is extremely useful when shooting high speed flash and you need higher power )
5> Make sure the camera battery and the radio trigger battery are new / fully charged. weak battery can also lead to sync errors.
6> Use Sync cable and avoid using any radio triggers. (if you have multiple Move 1200L use the slave on the pack to trigger all the packs at the same time ) every Camera, flash and radio trigger has its own built in native delay. this is something native to every unit. So by using the Sync cable, you will eliminate one delay. If you doing extreme short flash duration work, only then this is useful. for normal work just use a radio trigger. ( One should avoid using the radio trigger as well as sync cable both at the same time with the same flash. in this case there will be two signals from camera going into the pack and it will create sync error, ( as the sync cable will trigger the flash first and then radio trigger will trigger the flash second, so the flash will receive two inputs and you will get a error message on the pack)
Similarly if you are doing extreme short flash duration work, connect the primary pack with the sync cable and use all other packs on slave mode. avoid radio triggers.
7> Set your camera shutter speed on the highest possible sync speed of that camera, to avoid any vibration coming from the camera. (blurring of image due to flash is different from blurring of image due to camera vibration) e.g. if you have a medium format camera, set the shutter speed on the highest possible sync speed to avoid the vibrations of the large mirror movement inside the camera. Not a must but preferably use a tripod.
8> While shooting outdoors under bright sunlight with flash, the model lamp of the flash is useless and you won’t be able to see where the flash light reaches. make sure that the model you wish to light is totally covered under the area of flash light, only then model will freeze. e.g. if you are shooting a model who’s dancing or jumping and you have placed the lamp head too close then moment model jumps or dances and moves out of the flash coverage that much part will be lit by day light and then you will see partial blur in that much of area. (this is when you are mixing day light + flash)
If you have any doubts or need more information, please feel free to email me