The Profoto B1 500 TTL already thoroughly impressed us with its 500 watt seconds of power (enough to even overpower the sun) and Profoto is making it even better with a new firmware update unlocking high-speed sync. With the HSS upgrade installed, Profoto claims you’ll be able to shoot with shutter speeds as fast as 1/8000 of a second to really capture freeze frames of action shots.
The advantage of high-speed sync is it gives you more control over the exposure, effectively allowing you to freeze action or completely remove ambient light. However, HSS also introduces a host of problems as lighting manufacturers made sacrifices in quality while only focusing in power and speed.
Profoto claims it’s managed to avoid all the pitfalls of HSS thanks to its B1 system, which provides the more and better-balanced lighting than ten speedlights. Now paired with the fast, powerful, and consistent capabilities of Profoto HSS, B1 user will be able to capture sharp action stills even in mixed lighting conditions without picking up any motion blur from the ambient lighting.
The Profoto HSS firmware update is available on this website for both Canon and Nikon B1 users. Once installed, B1 users will be able to activate HSS mode through a simple button-press without needing to change out the blub or making any other changes to the off-camera flash.
