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Fishy flash conundrum


marcg

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I found a second-hand Metz 20C-2 flash unit.

It was suggested here - Non-Dedicated Flash Guide | Rangefinder Workshop that this was a useful little unit to have around for that odd occasion. I was attracted by the bounce head - and also that it was hugely cheaper than a small Leica flash - although it was the bounce which was the clincher.

 

It only fires intermittently on an MM and on an M7 every third shot.

 

On a Fuji X100 it also fires intermittently - but every second shot. If you set the Metz as a commander on the Fuji - then it fires correctly - every shot.

I'm driven to the conclusion that there is nothing wrong with the Metz - but that there is some other technical/compatibility issue.

 

I see that there has been some discussion of intermittent firing of flash units here - http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-m8-forum/88482-flash-firing-quirk-looking-advice.html - which didn't seem to produce any conclusive answer.

 

Has anyone any suggestions?

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Is there any chance that by coincidence you shot with shorter intervals, before the flash could recharge its capacitor except in the last scenario?

Thanks for your response.

One my my first thoughts. I noticed that the green light didn't come on abruptly but took a half second or so to arrive at full brightness - so I made sure that I waited as long as 5 seconds between shots after the green light came on.

Also, I operated the camera with the flash set at M - full power and also F2.8 and 5.6 which are only a partial discharge requiring a much shorter build-up time. Exactly the same problem.

 

Same with the Fuji - except every second shot - and same with Fuji in commander mode - flash fired correctly every time.

 

It is very strange.

 

Before anyone suggests that the batteries needed recharging - I used the flash in Fuji commander mode after I did a lot of experimenting with the MM and the Fuji - so that by the time it got to commander mode, the flash batteries were already partially depleted and yet fired perfectly.

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