M240 flash solution?

[jrp]

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Now that Metz, manufacturer for the 58 has gone, what is the best solution for bounce flash for the M240?

 

£550 for a Metz head was the usual 100% increase over the unbadged version, but I'm (even more) hesitant about getting one now that Metz has gone, meaning no support.

 

Is there an alternative?

[bab]

oly fl36 rocks

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[jrp]

? Is that not also a metz?

[bocaburger]

I recently picked up a mint Metz 54MZ3 for $105. If it craps out (my original one is still going strong after more than 10 years) I'm not out a fortune. With any SCA3502 module it picks up the ISO from the M240 and (with coded lenses) zooms the flash head. Works in auto flash (sensor) mode, which in my experience gives as good exposures as TTL (or whatever the digital form of it is called) and doesn't give off a preflash that alerts subjects to an impending photo as well as causes a lag.

 

If you can live without the automatic transmission of ISO and focal length for zooming, and live with 2-4 auto apertures, there are any number of auto thyristor flashes in the $5-$50 range that do bounce and work quite well, among them the redoubtable Sunpak 383 Super and Vivitar 283/285 and a number of older Metz units. In my experience these have been supremely reliable, and if they do go teats up the cost is so nominal as to make them disposable.

 

And the SF20 and 24D are also options (the 24D does operate in TTL on the M240). I have successfully and inexpensively "solved" the problem of the fixed head: http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/other-leica-products/359639-leica-sf24d-sf20-bounce-solution.html .