M8 and Olympus FL-36 flash.....works !

[ck1]

While browsing the web I noted that the Olympus flash guns were apparently related to (or rebadged ?) Panasonic units.

Panasonic and Leica are close, I thought, so in a moment of extreme recklessness went off and bought an FL-36 this afternoon - £149.

Very compact (approx same dimensions as the SD 24 flash unit+ slightly heavier) and, this is the killer, swivel and bounce head.

To cut a long story short (and praying it would not fry the camera), after 60 shots or so it seems to works fine on auto (not auto ttl obviously) and manual. The bounce and swivel head works flawlessly.

One point (which took me a while to figure out) - when manually inputting the lens length on the gun, you have to remember that focal lengths multipliers in the 4/3 system are half that of the 135mm system, so with a 28mm asph lens on an M8 you have to multiply by 1.3 and then halve (i.e. select 17mm on the flash)

NB also happy to report that the locking pins line up perfectly so no chance of flash and camera disengaging.

[marknorton]

Interesting, thanks for the post. I think many of us don't like the TTL pre-flash anyway, so it's an interesting alternative.

[Riley]

ck1, for some flexibility try this with FL-36

* press the mode button for more than 2 seconds

* press the mode button again to get into set-up mode

* turn the dial to select Light Intensity Adjustment; you will cycle through characters ILL, CLP, zoom 4-3, zoom 135, m/ft, OFF (this is the one to change) press to change to ON

* press mode for more than 2 seconds again to get out

Now you can adjust light intensity by +/- 1/3 stops with the Rotating Dial on the back

[rondeb]

Would you be kind enough to post a couple samples with the flash?
Thanks in advance. This may be some great news.
Ron

[ck1]

Riley: Thanks - very useful - I hadn't got that far into the manual ! You can also disable the 4/3 focal length setting and get the unit to display the focal length in "normal" 135 mode

Rondeb: I'll wheel out the cats tonight

[Riley]

yes page 48 has all the gear

for anyone else that maybe interested, there's a downloadable pdf manual here

http://www.olympus.co.jp/en/support/...man_fl36_e.pdf

and note: Panasonic factories make the FL-36 we believe, badged as FL-360, either work on Panasonic or Olympus Digital cameras
however NOT as TTL on the LC-1/D2 which as some of you would know is a Leica foot. Hence there is no risk of frying anything to my mind

[Woody Campbell]

Nice find - thanks. It's also a plus that it runs on AA batteries and there's a Stofen difuser for it.

[ck1]

Woody - yep - runs on AA's - have a couple of AA lithiums in it at the moment - pretty quick cycling.

Benny was not keen on modelling tonight, but these give an idea....28 asph (uncoded), 486 IR filter, flash bounced off white ceiling. Virtually no photoshop correction.

[grober]

You're shooting this Oly flash with the M8 on "A" yes?

I'm curious what actual shutter speed the camera selects. Is that data captured in the info stored for each shot?

Thanks for positng this hopeful news.

-g

[craigrmurray]

ck:

Are you training Benny to shake hands (paws)?

Live long and well,

Craig

[guy_mancuso]

Can you select the ISO and F stop on A mode

[WeinschelA]

Originally Posted by grober

You're shooting this Oly flash with the M8 on "A" yes?

I'm curious what actual shutter speed the camera selects. Is that data captured in the info stored for each shot?

Thanks for positng this hopeful news.

-g

I think he meant "auto" on the flash, not on the M8.

[rondeb]

Looking pretty good there. Are you manually selecting shutter and aperture(obviously) on the camera? Do you have to manually input aperture on the flash?
Thanks,
Ron

[robsteve]

I think the question is whether the flash signals the camer that it is ready and the camera goes to the proper sync speed when the camera is in A mode.

[Riley]

Originally Posted by guy_mancuso

Can you select the ISO and F stop on A mode

it doesn't receive from the camera, its dumb flash
you can set that data in manually

sometimes its as well to set for a shooting circumstance, and adjust the flash ev via the wheel, you get 3 stops each way
or just adjust aperture with the wheel

[Riley]

Originally Posted by robsteve

I think the question is whether the flash signals the camer that it is ready and the camera goes to the proper sync speed when the camera is in A mode.

on LC-1, and i assume D2, anything in the hot shoe puts the camera at sync speed
unless you manually select a speed, which is as it should be for a camera with A mode
it is possible to fire the shutter, while the flash isnt ready, so i guess no

[ck1]

Grober: No...a different method is used with "auto" flashes like this which do not communicate with the camera:

With the M8 and FL-36 you can only select "Manual" or "Auto" ("Auto TTL" is disabled) on the flash unit. As Riley says, there is no connection between the camera and the flash unit, save for a trigger contact to fire the beast when you press the shutter button on the M8

I'm selecting "Auto" on the flash, 1/250 shutter speed (max sync speed) on the M8 and using whichever aperture is appropriate for the shot. The flash will tell me if the f number I've selected is too small / large to make a correctly exposed pic.

You have to manually input ISO, the lens focal length and f stop into the flash.

In practice in a darkish room, select 1/250 with f5.6 and virtually every shot (whether bounced or direct) is propely exposed (the flash has a photoreceptor on it whch ensures the exposure is correct). I have taken 1,000's of flash pics this way using canon gear - once set up, very quick and very consistent exposures results.

Slightly different considerations apply to fill flash in sunny conditions (which is going to be great fun with this flash)

Guy: Yes - you input ISO and F stop into the flash unit when it is in "Auto" mode.

Robsteve - M8 will fire flash in Auto mode, but you still have to input correct f stop into flash unit AND make sure shutter speed does not exceed 1/250s (M8 does not appear to default to 1/250s on A, even if flash is in hot shoe and powered up).

Hence much much easier to use M8 in manual mode as described above.

**Can't yet get the light intensity compensation to work as described by Riley..might be disabled when flash used on M8, but I'll play. Not a problem at all, though, just alter F stop on the flash instead

[Riley]

**Can't yet get the exposure compensation to work as described by Riley..might be disabled, but I'll play. Not a problem at all, though, just alter F stop on the flash instead

im just thinking that doesnt matter, its really for TTL, sorry I use the thing all damn day you would reckon I would know that. But as aperture is in 1/3 stops *shrug, theres no difference.

so i guess you set iso
set lens angle
and choose an appropriate F stop
it can get a little hairy at higher F stops, runs out of grunt
when the green and yellow LEDs flash, your battery is out of gas

[dseelig]

Originally Posted by ck1

Can you uwse this flash with a voigtlander 15 on the m8 will it cover thanks David

Grober: No...a different method is used with "auto" flashes like this which do not communicate with the camera:

With the M8 and FL-36 you can only select "Manual" or "Auto" ("Auto TTL" is disabled) on the flash unit. As Riley says, there is no connection between the camera and the flash unit, save for a trigger contact to fire the beast when you press the shutter button on the M8

I'm selecting "Auto" on the flash, 1/250 shutter speed (max sync speed) on the M8 and using whichever aperture is appropriate for the shot. The flash will tell me if the f number I've selected is too small / large to make a correctly exposed pic.

You have to manually input ISO, the lens focal length and f stop into the flash.

In practice in a darkish room, select 1/250 with f5.6 and virtually every shot (whether bounced or direct) is propely exposed (the flash has a photoreceptor on it whch ensures the exposure is correct). I have taken 1,000's of flash pics this way using canon gear - once set up, very quick and very consistent exposures results.

Slightly different considerations apply to fill flash in sunny conditions (which is going to be great fun with this flash)

Guy: Yes - you input ISO and F stop into the flash unit when it is in "Auto" mode.

Robsteve - M8 will fire flash in Auto mode, but you still have to input correct f stop into flash unit AND make sure shutter speed does not exceed 1/250s (M8 does not appear to default to 1/250s on A, even if flash is in hot shoe and powered up).

Hence much much easier to use M8 in manual mode as described above.

**Can't yet get the light intensity compensation to work as described by Riley..might be disabled when flash used on M8, but I'll play. Not a problem at all, though, just alter F stop on the flash instead[/quote]

[ck1]

Riley: Yep - you can't alter light output with the wheel with M8/Fl-36 combo BUT instead the wheel alters F stop you've told the flah that the camera is using, so net effect is identical.

This seems to be an small, light very well made unit. My preliminary view is that this combo is almost perfect for flash photgraphy with the M8. Granted, the lack of auto ttl makes it less ideal for "automate-everything-point-and-shoot-photography", but is doesn't take more than 10 mins to remember / learn how to use a flash this (good old) way.

There is even a diffuser built in to the flash head for 16 to 25mm lenses. The two Leica diffusers were (a) separate from the flash head (and thus always being lost) and (b) impossible to tell apart !

David: I'll try the diffuser with the 15mm CV tomorrow (providing Benny's not having another hissy fit)....it should work fine...