Pocket Wizard MultiMAX Owner's Manual - page 46
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Speed is not the most important factor in camera equalization, consistency is. If
a slow camera has extremely consistent lag times it will be a better equalization
candidate than a faster but inconsistent camera. The reason why it is important to
know the approximate fastest lag time for a camera, especially an inconsistent one, is
to calculate margin of error (discussed later in this section).
The amount of drift or lag time inconsistency determines the highest shutter speed at
which a camera will reliably equalize. The following table should be used as a starting point
for testing purposes only. The numbers in this table are based on a 1/1000th or faster flash
duration.
Shutter Speed
Probable maximum safe lag
time variation for average focal
plane (35mm) camera
Probable maximum safe lag
time variation for average leaf
shutter camera, F:8.0
1/300
1/250
1/200
1/180
1/125
1/90
1/60
1/30
1/15
1/8
1/4
1/2
1
2
N
Leaf shutters have different shutter blade travel times depending on aperture. A wider
aperture takes longer and reduces the amount of variance allowed. A smaller aperture
takes less time thereby increasing the allowable variance. (A leaf shutter set to F:4.0,
for example, may reduce the variance to the same as a focal plane camera).