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Best flash for Leica Q


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I have the SF26 on the Q. Seems to work well where a bit of fill us needed. Obviously, not a strong flash which is great when one prefers available light anyway. Small, light and adds a touch when needed. It is adjustable to fire indirectly as well. 

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I too have the SF 26 and find it works well.  A bit expensive when the Metz version (only difference is firmware) sells for $129 but unfortunately, the Metz version does not work (I tried it).  There was a firmware upgrade available for the Metz to make it work with the Leica D-Lux series and that might have made it work but it was a Windows only update and required a Windows driver install.  I set up a Windows 8 bootcamp partition on my iMac but I could never get the Windows system to recognize the USB device so I couldn't install the upgrade to test it.  I didn't have a true Windows machine to perform the upgrade so I gave up on it and bought the SF-26.  The TTL mode appears to work pretty well but will overexpose on direct if too close to the subject.  Doesn't work quite as well as the Olympus TTL flashes but with minor adjustments works well enough for my uses.  I prefer not to use flash but fill can come in handy and making a dark interior look a little brighter also helps.

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  • 2 months later...

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I too have the SF 26 and find it works well.  A bit expensive when the Metz version (only difference is firmware) sells for $129 but unfortunately, the Metz version does not work (I tried it).  There was a firmware upgrade available for the Metz to make it work with the Leica D-Lux series and that might have made it work but it was a Windows only update and required a Windows driver install.  I set up a Windows 8 bootcamp partition on my iMac but I could never get the Windows system to recognize the USB device so I couldn't install the upgrade to test it.  I didn't have a true Windows machine to perform the upgrade so I gave up on it and bought the SF-26.  The TTL mode appears to work pretty well but will overexpose on direct if too close to the subject.  Doesn't work quite as well as the Olympus TTL flashes but with minor adjustments works well enough for my uses.  I prefer not to use flash but fill can come in handy and making a dark interior look a little brighter also helps.

I am debating ordering the SF 26 for my Q. I took a bunch of people pictures indoors with sunny windows in the scenes and the faces were all seriously underexposed while the highlights were preserved by the Q. So the camera did it's thing exposure wise but this situation obviously calls for fill flash. Hence I'm debating dropping $300+ for the SF 26. I have a couple of questions for those who have this flash: 

1 - are all, or any, angles possible for bounce flash mode other than 0 degrees (head on) or 90 (to ceiling)?

2- the specs say "Also, the flash has a constant LED video light with 2 output settings and a maximum output of 30 lux at 3.3'." That sounds interesting - has anyone tried this? Are the levels bright enough to be useful? This would certainly be nice as people cringe and squint and generally loathe being flashed. Also - if I understand this LED light, it might also be a nice feature for lighting closeups in the Q's very nice macro mode.

3- Is the size and weight of the SF 26 relatively low so that it still is a fairly small nice package? If someone has a picture of it on the Q, then would be great. They quote the weight as 4+ ounces so that seems ok (not sure if that is with the AAA batteries, probably not).

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The best flash will be the one that fits your needs. From the specs the new SF40 is far better in most aspects as the SF 26 is. And it is just 80,- Euros extra compared to the SF26 but I do not regret that I bought the SF 26. I do not use it very often for me it is a kind of an insurance for the rare situations where I might need it and for that purpose it is the best flash for the Q, it is so tiny that it even fits into my small Fogg flute bag and that light that I even do not notice if it is in the bag or not. BTW it always is in there, right under a small trap door divider.

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This SF40 looks to be more than twice the weight than the sf26 and is probably quite a bit larger. The specs say is is for 16-105mm lens, so isn't this overkill if I plan to use it only for the Q? It looks like the sf 26 is the one to get  for a basic, compact fill flash for the Q. No?

 

Also, I wish someone would answer my two questions:

Is the sf 26 adjustable in any direction other than up or straight ahead?

Have you found the so called LED video light useful?

 

 

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I'll most likely opt for the little EF-X20 as I prefer a manual flash and it should be a good fit in terms of size.

I just watched a youtube video about this last night. Does anyone know a light and small way to get it off camera?

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  • 3 months later...

To those who have purchased the Flash Q: are you satisfied with it with the Q? 

 

Yes, works very well. Gets the flash off the camera and syncs well. I use the SF24D on manual and sit the flash on a polarois pistol grip/tripod as follows.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I too am using the SF 24D on the Q set at A (couldn't get it to fire at M or TTL ) but am finding it to

be just great for fill flash maneuvers. Setting aperture, shutter speed and ISO for slow exposure (f4,

1/30th,ISO 400)of the background, and second curtain sync at -1 exp comp(on the 24 D, not on the camera)

for foreground, am getting gorgeous results. Have always considered flash to be bad grammar with Leica

lenses and machines,but this is kind of fun. Good luck!

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