Flash and shutter speeds

[ladyups]

I was taking pictures this morning and decided to light up some shadows in a red dogwood shrub. I wanted to shoot at a higher shutter speed, cause I had my 70-300mm lens and was hand holding. But, as soon as I pulled up the on camera flash, it would not let me set the shutter speed over 1/125 of a second. Is this normal with all cameras or just mine. I have a Sony a100.

Thanks for any help!

Mary

[gjtoth]

I was taking pictures this morning and decided to light up some shadows in a red dogwood shrub. I wanted to shoot at a higher shutter speed, cause I had my 70-300mm lens and was hand holding. But, as soon as I pulled up the on camera flash, it would not let me set the shutter speed over 1/125 of a second. Is this normal with all cameras or just mine. I have a Sony a100.

Thanks for any help!

Mary

I just tried it on my Oly, Mary, and it allowed me. HOWEVER, I was not outside is snow. Soooooo... that might make a difference. Dunno. Susan's camera is closest to yours. In fact, I think she still might own it. Susan?

[jerryph]

The fastest speed at which a camera can shoot using a flash is called it's maximum synch speed. Depending on brand and model most are between 1/125th to 1/250th. A few are a bit more.

I would believe that this is normal for your camera.

[ladyups]

The fastest speed at which a camera can shoot using a flash is called it's maximum synch speed. Depending on brand and model most are between 1/125th to 1/250th. A few are a bit more.

I would believe that this is normal for your camera.

Thanks for your response, Jerry. I did some research after I read your response and found out that 1/125th is my flash sync speed if I have IS on and its 1/160th if I turn the IS off. Since I'm not rock steady (ha...not even close!) turning off IS and using the flash might be a good thing for me cause I could hand hold better at 1/160th.

Mary