The catch is that the power of the flash is reduced in these “trick” modes, which is no big deal when you are filling in the shadows on a single face, but it is when you are trying to balance the exposure on a wedding procession or anything else that is big and/or relatively far away from the flash.

But here’s a little known secret: compact digital cameras usually lack a focal-plane shutter and use electronic gating, sometimes referred to as an ‘electronic shutter’. With these compact digicams, you can sync up any flash – even those that do not have an fP or HSS mode – at any shutter speed, including the fastest one. (Obviously you will want to use a compact that has a hot shoe, though you may experiment with flashguns optically slaved to the onboard flash.)