carl170 Posted December 8, 2015 Share #1  Posted December 8, 2015 Advertisement (gone after registration) Hi again. I have established that my recently purchased IIIf works OK, so now I would like to buy a flash. I am not too sure what will work.  Most of the flashes seem to have a hot shoe, but I know my Leica only has an accessory mount (or cold shoe?), but I assume could physically mount the flash on there?  Is it as simple as just buying any flash with a PC cord and working out the timing using the flash settings on the IIIf? Do all PC cables the use same connectors?  Thanks (as always)!  Best wishes,  Carl Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted December 8, 2015 Posted December 8, 2015 Hi carl170, Take a look here Flash unit for IIIf?. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
jankap Posted December 9, 2015 Share #2  Posted December 9, 2015 I have the IIIf with the red contact scale. With electronic flash you can only use the number 20. The shortest exposure time, you can choose, is 1/50 sec.  The other numbers are for different kinds of flash bulbs (remember Hitchcock´s "Rear window"). Bulbs burned longer in time, then one could choose shorter exposure times.  There is no communication between camera and flash unit. So the flash should be set to manual. On the other hand you can use old fashioned flash units. The camera has a mechanical switch, so it can switch "real" electric current. Jan  PS The shoe connector of the camera is mechanical only. The cable of the flash should fit into the connector of the camera (outer and inner contact pin). For the newer flash units you have to buy a shoe. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
earleygallery Posted December 9, 2015 Share #3 Â Posted December 9, 2015 Yes any manual flash with a pc cord will work, or you can buy a hot shoe adaptor which fits the cold shoe and an attached cord plugs in to the pc socket on the camera. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
willeica Posted December 9, 2015 Share #4  Posted December 9, 2015 For some reason Leica don't seem to have included a full table in the Black Dial manual (certainly the one I have) but the settings are Dial 2 and shutter speed 1/30th. It seems that they were going to provide the data with the flash units. The Red Dial IIIF manual has a full table and the settings are Dial 20 and shutter speed 1/50th and Dial 0 and shutter speed 1/25th. The latter was supposed to be for flashes with delay to simulate flash bulbs but I understand it works well with no delay electronic flash. I have only used the other setting.  As for modern flashes with a sync cable, I have found the Metz 20 C-2 to be very effective; it even has bounce flash. You can also use a shoe attachment with a sync cable built in  William Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pico Posted December 9, 2015 Share #5 Â Posted December 9, 2015 It is interesting that this has come up three times quite recently. This link answers the question of how to use a hot-shoe flash with a PC connection. Â I suggest you begin with a flash that has an Auto (A) setting, then experiment as you please with Manual aperture. Â Whether you use a flash with its own PC cord or the solution above, you still need to set the speed dial properly. I think it is 1/50 or 1/30. Â Enjoy! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl170 Posted December 10, 2015 Author Share #6  Posted December 10, 2015 Thanks for all your help with this. I am going to order a basic flash with PC cord and run a few test shots off.  Regards  Carl Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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