What is a good flash system for sports photography?

[Graham Cracker]

I have a Canon 430EX and am interested in learning about a high speed flash that can be used for bursts in shooting sports. I know it needs to be run on an external battery source but I am true ignorant as to what I need and what to get? Any pointers would be appreciated.

[Art Scott]

From my own experience here is what I have found........if you run a stobe in bursts and do not allow it too cool it will physically burst (what I was taught is called GRENADING.....yup explodes just like a shrapnel styled hand-grenade.....I had a Vivatar 285HV do that to me.....Ohhh what fun)....You may find STROBIST DOT COM to have the info you're looking for........if you are in a situation where you can have AC powered strobes then I would recommend them....if not then depending on how serious you are and the sport involved you may want to start looking at Norman flash units or for that matter battery powered studio strobes (like Alien Bees or othe White Lightning stobes or Pro Foto......and there are others out there)

Good Luck


EDIT:
Dang near forgot.........the faster a strobe needs to recycle means a larger aperture setting (smaller "F" number) the it uses less of the electricity stored in the capacitor for each shot in the burst..........

[swintonphoto]

I also might ad - I think you may find it hard to have many sports allow you to have rapid fire bright flashes going off during a game.

[Graham Cracker]

I also might ad - I think you may find it hard to have many sports allow you to have rapid fire bright flashes going off during a game.

I agree and thanks for the info. I am really interested in using it only in the endzone of football games. Im not crazy about how the flash pictures look anyway but it is so hard to get the faces without it. Thanks Patrick