Flash Photography: What happened to the shutter speed?

[Maxwell Zwe]

Hi, everyone!

After relooking at this issue for a while, I thought that I might post it here for some clarification, or just that I was doing something wrong.

So, the issue was regarding Lumia 1020's shutter speed whenever xenon flash was enabled. It would appear that with the minimum shutter speed was capped to 1/1000 seconds, instead of the usual 1/16000 seconds that we would have when we take a photo without flash.

Here are the screenshots that I have attached.

The order of the photos were a little messed up, so I will explain what's happening:

The first one is the resulting photo from the capture; it should be darker if the shutter speed is truly 1/16000 s.

The second one is the screenshot of the viewfinder before taking the photo. Do take note of the settings that I have used: ISO-value is 100, 1/16000 sec shutter speed, flash is on, focus is pre-set...

The third screenshot is the EXIF data; it turns out that the camera used a shutter speed of 1/1000 seconds instead of the desired 1/16000 s.

So, what I would like to know is, what is stopping my phone from using a shutter speed faster than 1/1000 seconds when flash is enabled? Is it because of some automatic algorithm, or simply a hardware limitation whereby the xenon flash has a minimum shutter speed of 1/1000 sec?

Thanks, and regards,
Valentine/Maxwell Zwe :smile:

 

[Christus Hirschus]

I think it's almost impossible to reach a shutter speed of 1/16000 and sync with the flash at the same time.

Anyway 1/1000 is still a lot faster than most compact cameras or even dslr's when usig the flash.

 

[msirapian]

I had this exact question to Juha Alakarhu when I got my 1020. His answer was that with an exposure time < 1/1000s, the flash can't sync. So if you want to force the shutter speed, be sure to select a value >=1/1000s, if not, the flash won't fire.

 

[Maxwell Zwe]

Ah, I see. Then what I have read on other blogs and websites have been incorrect; most (if not, all) stated that the flash can sync with the minimum shutter speed (1/16000 s).