I don't have an SB-28, but I have owned and used many strobe flashes over
the years, including studio strobe lights. Currently I have a third-party
flash which is fully compatible with all modes of my F100.
Some general thoughts: the only flashes I've seen that have a flash
duration as slow as 1/150 second are very old studio strobes. Modern
equipment is _much_ faster than that. I'm currently using White Lightning
(studio) strobes and depending on the model the flash duration at full
power ranges from 1/900 second to 1/1600 second. My third party auto flash
ranges from 1/1000 second to 1/90,000 second. Specs from other
manufacturers are similar.
As I said, I don't have a Nikon flash, so I don't have any of the official
manuals. However, I do have Thom Hogan's "Nikon Field Guide" and here's
what he says about flash duration of various Nikon flashes:
(From a table on p.111)
Flash Maximum Minimum
Unit Duration Duration
SB-11 1/800 NA
SB-14 1/800 NA
SB16a/b 1/1,250 1/8,000
SB-17 1/1,400 1/10,000
SB-20 1/1,200 1/15,000
SB-21a/b 1/1,600 1/25,000
SB-22 1/1,700 1/8,000
SB-23 1/1,2000 NA
SB-24 1/1,000 1/20,000
SB-25 1/1,000 1/23,000
SB-26 1/1,000 1/23,000
SB-27 1/1,000 1/6,700
SB-28 1/850 1/8,700
So yes, at full power the SB-29 is relatively "slow" but still fast enough
at 1/850 second to capture most peak action. But then all strobes are
slower at full output than at a fractional power, but they still have
pretty brief duration, certainly short enough for all but specialized shooting.
For proper use of flash fill with _any_ auto-flash you really must be
within the usable range of the flash capability. Otherwise, there is no way
an auto sensor (either TTL or on board the flash) can correctly compensate
a fill ratio.
--
John Albino
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
