When I was shooting professionally I certainly would have used the extreme speeds. Perhaps not down to 1/80000, but certainly higher than the "normal" flash sync speeds most cameras support today.
I used to photograph professional skateboarders. My favorite sort of shot would be of the rider doing something down a set of stairs using a telephoto (usually in the f4 and up focal length). I'd setup strobes in front of and behind the rider's line to get good rim lighting of their face and body as they nailed the trick.
That was to help isolate them in the shot against the background better, which, because of the f4 and need for a lot of light, we'd shoot in broad daylight.
That meant you needed very bright flashes and very fast shutter speeds. The best my camera could do at the time was 1/250 flash sync, which meant that was the fastest shutter speed I could use. 1/250 is the very bare minimum you can use in those conditions to freeze motion. If I could have shot above 1/500, that would have opened up so many other options for capturing those kinds of shots.
Others have explained that the flash duration itself doesn't need to be quick as the shutter. If it helps, think of it this way: you can still capture sunlight at 1/80000, even though the sun's "flash" duration is pretty long.
I used to photograph professional skateboarders. My favorite sort of shot would be of the rider doing something down a set of stairs using a telephoto (usually in the f4 and up focal length). I'd setup strobes in front of and behind the rider's line to get good rim lighting of their face and body as they nailed the trick.
That was to help isolate them in the shot against the background better, which, because of the f4 and need for a lot of light, we'd shoot in broad daylight.
That meant you needed very bright flashes and very fast shutter speeds. The best my camera could do at the time was 1/250 flash sync, which meant that was the fastest shutter speed I could use. 1/250 is the very bare minimum you can use in those conditions to freeze motion. If I could have shot above 1/500, that would have opened up so many other options for capturing those kinds of shots.
Others have explained that the flash duration itself doesn't need to be quick as the shutter. If it helps, think of it this way: you can still capture sunlight at 1/80000, even though the sun's "flash" duration is pretty long.