kcnarf Posted February 16, 2013 Share #1 Posted February 16, 2013 Advertisement (gone after registration) Included with the M-240 multi-functional handgrip is a compact flash bracket, attachable to the bottom of the grip and bearing a second hot shoe. That bracket juts out on the left side of the camera, adding about a couple of extra inches there at the bottom. To my eye and mind, this configuration is not optimal. For example, it impedes the bouncing of flash to the right and right rear. I certainly don't want to be confined to directional lighting from only one side. Am I the only one who sees a problem here? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted February 16, 2013 Posted February 16, 2013 Hi kcnarf, Take a look here M-240 flash bracket (poorly designed?). I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
marknorton Posted February 16, 2013 Share #2 Posted February 16, 2013 Where would you like it to be? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcnarf Posted February 16, 2013 Author Share #3 Posted February 16, 2013 Well, in the regular hotshoe would obviously be best. But I easily envision instances that would make it advisable to use the EVF there, Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
250swb Posted February 16, 2013 Share #4 Posted February 16, 2013 So ideally you want an EVF with another hotshoe on top........................... Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwbell Posted February 16, 2013 Share #5 Posted February 16, 2013 Use the OVF and normal hot shoe? Buy standard 3rd party flash bracket and or use a wireless trigger? I think in general it's a poor design, for bounce flash, yes. But the focus is in making it a good rangefinder, then better high ISO, then R compatible, then an EVf, then waterproofed, etc. positioning the bounce flash while using an EvF probably took a back seat to every other consideration. And rightly so in my opinion. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcnarf Posted February 16, 2013 Author Share #6 Posted February 16, 2013 Direct on-camera flash upon a subject results in flat, monotonous lighting. So the Leica/Metz production of their fully swiveling SF-58 flash unit implies their recognition that horizontally bounced on-camera flash can create a visually interesting interplay of light and shadow upon the subject of a photo. But unfortunately, this apparently recognized principle is contravened by the configuration of the M-240 bracket as adjoined to the camera: a serious defect in this nearly $1,000 flash accessory. What might have worked would be a current-conductive second bracket vertically inserted at its bottom end into the first bracket's hot shoe and, at its top end, into the bottom of the SF-58. That would set the flash unit up high enough for it to provide unimpeded lighting to either side both front and rear. As it is now, an M-240 photographer, when wanting to bounce flash to the right but needing to occupy the on-camera hot shoe with the EVF, is forced into the encumbrance, as well possibly extra expense, of off-camera flash. This is especially bad when you consider that M's have traditionally been famous as compact tools of choice for ambulant street and countryside photography Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rramesh Posted February 16, 2013 Share #7 Posted February 16, 2013 Advertisement (gone after registration) Hmmm, I wonder how many of us here actually use the Leica M9 hotshoe for a flash. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
algrove Posted February 16, 2013 Share #8 Posted February 16, 2013 Not me. Al (or should I say Mr. Available Light Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
viramati Posted February 16, 2013 Share #9 Posted February 16, 2013 Hmmm, I wonder how many of us here actually use the Leica M9 hotshoe for a flash. When needs be I do with the SF58 which I find to be a versatile and powerful unit Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pico Posted February 16, 2013 Share #10 Posted February 16, 2013 Am I the only one who sees a problem here? Probably not, but IMHO demanding such features rather defeats the nature of the Leica RF camera's intent to be a compact and mobile. Besides, some enterprising person will come up with an add-on. . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcnarf Posted February 16, 2013 Author Share #11 Posted February 16, 2013 Dear Mr. A L Available Light, I too try to make the best of available light, otherwise known as ambient light. And clearly, the best available light is best when best available light is best available. When it is not, then it is best assisted with just enough touch of diffused flash obliquely striking the subject. Obliquely bouncing an on-camera flash unit's brief blast of light against a large reflecting wall turns that wall into a large, diffuse, and oblique source of light upon the photographer's subject. When knowledgeably combined, a scene's naturally occurring ambient light and the right touch of obliquely bounced flash indiscernably merge into one virtual natural unity of light upon and around the photographer's subject. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcnarf Posted February 16, 2013 Author Share #12 Posted February 16, 2013 Dear Viramati, you must have missed what I clearly said: that, when need be, I too use the SF-58 flash but also that the M-240 flash bracket can greatly impede the utility of that flash and other similar flash units. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcnarf Posted February 16, 2013 Author Share #13 Posted February 16, 2013 Originally posted by Pico: "... But IMHO demanding such features rather defeats the nature of the Leica RF camera's intent to be [...] compact and mobile. [....]" Not so! Instead, the present design of the M-240 handgrip + attachable flash bracket with supplementary hot shoe is what "rather defeats the nature of the Leica RF camera's intent to be [satisfactorily] compact and mobile [even when used with the swiveling, bounce-flash Leica SF-58, which clearly was designed for that camera and certainly does not impinge greatly, if at all, upon the compactness and mobility of such. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pico Posted February 16, 2013 Share #14 Posted February 16, 2013 Dear Mr. A L Available Light, I too try to make the best of available light, otherwise known as ambient light. I call it Available Darkness. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
viramati Posted February 16, 2013 Share #15 Posted February 16, 2013 I have to say I have no idea what this bracket looks like as I can't find it on the leica site. Can you tell me where to find an image of it Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcnarf Posted February 16, 2013 Author Share #16 Posted February 16, 2013 Viramati, the bracket with supplementary hot shoe comes with and attaches to the bottom of the multifunctional hand grip. If you go to Dale Farka's reddotforum.com and scroll down to and within his proper Photokina post on the M-240, you will a few pictures and some description of that two-part accessory, which costs just about $1,000. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hepcat Posted February 16, 2013 Share #17 Posted February 16, 2013 Hmmm, I wonder how many of us here actually use the Leica M9 hotshoe for a flash. I use it with a hotshoe-pc adapter and a Sunpak 522 handle flash when i need flash. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwbell Posted February 16, 2013 Share #18 Posted February 16, 2013 Direct on-camera flash upon a subject results in flat, monotonous lighting. So the Leica/Metz production of their fully swiveling SF-58 flash unit implies their recognition that horizontally bounced on-camera flash can create a visually interesting interplay of light and shadow upon the subject of a photo. But unfortunately, this apparently recognized principle is contravened by the configuration of the M-240 bracket as adjoined to the camera: a serious defect in this nearly $1,000 flash accessory. What might have worked would be a current-conductive second bracket vertically inserted at its bottom end into the first bracket's hot shoe and, at its top end, into the bottom of the SF-58. That would set the flash unit up high enough for it to provide unimpeded lighting to either side both front and rear. As it is now, an M-240 photographer, when wanting to bounce flash to the right but needing to occupy the on-camera hot shoe with the EVF, is forced into the encumbrance, as well possibly extra expense, of off-camera flash. This is especially bad when you consider that M's have traditionally been famous as compact tools of choice for ambulant street and countryside photography Okie Dokie then. a) Don't buy it. Take a bank loan, develop a product that solves this major design oversight and become enormously wealthy and / or snapped up as head of product design at Leica. It is what it is. And as I say, this is probably not up there on the list with things like "accurate optical range finder". Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcnarf Posted February 16, 2013 Author Share #19 Posted February 16, 2013 Hey Hepcat, I presume that means you use handheld flash. So do I sometimes, with the small, non-swiveling Leica SF-24, a flash-connector cord, and a wrist strip. But holding a flash with one hand and the camera with the other is not easy if you are shooting a rather large .heavy, and slow R lens, as a good number of M-240 photographers are going to do. Also, for handheld flash there should be a connection directly to the multifunctional handgrip rather than one's having to attach it to a supplementary hot shoe mounted on a bracket that sticks out at bottom of the camera's left side and thereby poses the risk of a sharp jab in the ribs of any one who happens to come up beside the photographer. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcnarf Posted February 16, 2013 Author Share #20 Posted February 16, 2013 Dwbell, you just passively accept what the market offers without complaint or, even better yet, some thought given to a possible satisfactory workaround? Not me! For that I'm too proud, and also too intent upon implementing techniques that can make me a better photographer. So, if someone is willing, please help me devise a convenient work-around. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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