Forced flash help

[J.davis]

I am taking pics of birds and am going well in AP (set ISO to 800 to get the speed).
Needed some light on the sujects so I pop up the flash and everything is over exposed (badly).
Seems the flash takes over the Speed and drops it to 1/250 (= cr*p pics).
Can I have the flash fire without taking over the camera? Camera is a D7000.
Thanks in advance.

[norwest]

I'm not a Nikon user, J, but looks like it's reverting to it's sync speed of 1/250th sec. with the pop up flash and you'd need a speed light to use high speed sync. with a fast shutter speed.

[JM Tran]

in simplistic terms, just put your flash on high speed sync mode and it will be able to shoot past the x-sync speed of the camera, as most non pro bodies these days tend to max out at 1/200th and 1/250th, not very good for outdoors stuff most of the time.

[I @ M]

John, when you say you "popped the flash up" I assume that you mean the cameras inbuilt flash?
If so, you will be restricted to the maximum synch speed set in the camera menu as either 1/250 or 1/320 auto fp.

The way to take some more control over that situation is to use your SB600 on the camera. Set the camera to manual, select your desired shutter speed and aperture. Then adjust your ISO to somewhere near what you need to get a shot without a flash ( depending on metering mode in use ). If you are getting metering fairly close at 800 ISO before you considered the flash it is a pretty good place to start. In theory, when you have the flash on and then push the shutter button the flash, in conjunction with the camera metering should throw enough light to give you a correct exposure. In effect you are getting the flash to do the metering for you. That applies of course so long as the minimum power level of the flash doesn't intrude into the exposure level. If it does you will then have to drop your ISO so that the flash has to contribute light above its minimum power level.
There are many variables at play doing it this way but once you establish where things work with regard to ISO, subject distance, flash exposure compensation and metering mode on the subject the flash in conjunction with the camera can do an excellent job.

[Kym]

Some pop up flashes don't do high speed, ie. you're stuck with x-sync or less.

I sometimes use the external (AF540) flash in HS when shooting birds, it works well.

Some also use a better beamer to get more light on the subject.
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/better_beamer.shtml

[J.davis]

Thanks for all the comments and tips
Will try the SB600 and see how I go.