Sync Speed
When you use a flash with your camera, you can’t just use any shutter speed you want. When you press the shutter-release button, the front shutter moves out of the way, allowing light to reach the sensor. The rear curtain closes when the amount of time set by the shutter speed has passed. The sync speed is the fastest shutter speed on the camera when the front shutter curtain is open all the way and the rear curtain hasn’t yet started to close. The sync speed is usually 1/200 second or 1/250 second. If you use a shutter speed higher than the sync speed, the rear curtain will have begun to close, and part of the frame will be in black.
This shows what happens when the shutter-release button is pressed and the flash fires. The flash ...
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