Why does my Nikon D40 use slow shutter speeds with a Yongnuo YN-560 II flash in Aperture Priority?
Asked 12/3/2012
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I'm using a Nikon D40 with a Yongnuo YN-560 II external flash indoors. In Aperture Priority mode, the flash fires and syncs correctly, but the camera often still chooses a slow shutter speed as if no flash were attached, causing motion blur. Is this normal for the D40, and is there a setting to make it use a faster shutter speed automatically? I'd prefer not to use Shutter Priority if possible.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
13y ago
2 Answers
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The D40 has the older version of iTTL, where ambient exposure and flash exposure are metered totally independently - no matter how well your flash lights up the room, the shutter speed is still set so that ambient light would be exposed correctly just as if there were no flash. Newer version of iTTL (starting from D3 and D300) will underexpose ambient when there's flash present.
What you could do is use M (manual) exposure mode. Set the aperture to whatever you want it to be, and shutter speed to camera's max sync speed (1/500 s on the D40) or slower. Since flash is very fast, shutter speed only affects amount of recorded ambient light.
Originally by user4390. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user4390
13y ago
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Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes, this is normal behavior on the D40. In Aperture Priority, the camera meters ambient light and flash separately, so it may still choose a slow shutter speed to expose the room properly even though the flash fires correctly.
A practical fix is to use Manual exposure mode instead of Aperture Priority. Set the aperture you want, then choose a shutter speed at or below the D40’s flash sync speed (up to 1/500 s). The flash burst is very brief, so it effectively freezes the subject, while shutter speed mainly controls how much ambient light is recorded.
You can also keep ISO low and intentionally underexpose the ambient light by a couple of stops so the flash becomes the main light source. That reduces blur from room light and motion.
In short: the camera isn’t malfunctioning; it’s metering ambient light as designed. To avoid slow shutter blur with that flash, use Manual mode and let the flash do most of the lighting.
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