A99 flash sync speed

[mikeyp2000]

There is a growing concern over the sync speed for the A99 when used with third party flash or radio triggers.

It seems the centre pin on the new hotshoe has a slight delay in sending the 'fire now' signal.  This causes black bars to appear at the top of the photo at shutter speeds of 1/250.   1/250 is the A99's published flash sync speed.

More details can be read at:

http://www.dyxum.com/dforum/a99s-sync-speed_topic93240_page1.html

Indeed, on page 5 of this thread, a user called matthiaspaul provides other links to discussions with many other people having the same problem.

As the A99 is positioned as a pro camera, is it possible to have this problem fixed?

Thanks,

Michael

[sradwan]

I own a Metz 50 flash, Sony HVL-F60AM and several Bowens heads. I also at one point owned the a77 at the same time that I had the a99, so was able to make a direct comparison with speeds. In short, if I use a trigger on the a77, I get 1/250 with no issues, however on the a99 at 1/200 and pedantically examine it alongside an identical shot at 1/160 I can see a sort of vignetting but on the top part where you would see the black bar at higher synch speeds, in my books not an issue, however when you go 1/250, the dreaded black bar is there, occupying about 15% of the frame or more, which is an obvious issue. I put this down to using the adapater supplied on the wireless trigger, and just put up with it.

I was about to purchase a different trigger that used the standard ISO shoe, but stumbled across this forum, so I now know it's not the adapter and that other people are experiencing the same issue.

This to me is an issue when trying kill that little bit of ambient light, and although can be rectified in post processing, it seems such a shame to have such a brilliant camera with such a simple flaw.

Message was edited by: sradwan

[jcroy123]

Hello all,

I have joined this group to share my disappointment with the A99. I have been a faithful Sony user for the past 12 years. I have the A100, A550, A55, A850, A77 and the A99. In my studio shoot, not willing to change lenses, I regularly use 3 cameras: 850, 77 and 99. All studio lighting and triggering devices are of the same brand. Out of 10 pictures taken with the 99, 3 are either complete misfires or show black bars of different sizes. I have gone down to 1/90s and still get very erratic results. I have interchanged the triggering devices and still suffer the same annoying misfires or black bars. None of the other cameras has that problem. It has come to the point where I am sending the camera for repairs. SONY MUST ADDRESS THIS ISSUE.

On an other matter, can we ask sony to reinstate the intelligent preview they have in the 850 and 900. It is sorrily missed in the studio. The live view and preview result do us no good in the studio if we cannot trigger or strobes and preview the results.

[cmosse]

Can you specifiy which triggering devices you are using. Are you connecting the studio flash to the PC-sync socket of the camera or are you using some wireless trigger mounted on the hot shoe (Multi Interface shoe)

Best Regards

Michael

[mikeyp2000]

I use IShoot PT04 trigger/receivers.  The trigger mounts on the hotshoe via the adp-Maa adapter.  The receiver attach directly to the flash hotshoes on my f58 and Minolta 5400HS flashguns.

I also bought the canon/Nikon/Pentax version of the trigger. It fits directly onto the a99 hotshoe and works fine except for the sync speed is 1/160 for 100% success or 1/200 for a strong chance of a black bar at the top of the frame.

They all synced perfectly well at 1/250 on my a77.

[smithphilip1]

I done a shoot the other day. Used Phottix II triggers with Bowens 200 strobes had black line at 1/200 but not at 1/160. Would be nice to kill more ambient light with higher shutter speed without that black shutter line.