Flash on SL

[ramarren]

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There've been a few threads on using various flash units with the SL. 

 

I'd been thinking of buying an SF40. But I have to admit I use flash units so infrequently and have such limited need for a dedicated flash unit, the price is just a bit ridiculous. And I have enough flash equipment already.. 

 

So I pulled out my faithful little Nikon SB-30 and tried it. Works perfectly—No TTL but perfect sync and all the other features work well. Same for my Sunpak 44D. Then I pulled out my Cactus V2 RF trigger set and tested that. Again works perfectly. And my Cactus V5 RF trigger set ... more perfect operation. The SB-30 on manual, low power, with the IR shield up triggers both Patterson flat panel flash units too. 

 

That's it, I'm done. No need to spend any money on flash units at all. That's another $450 that'll stay in the bank. 

[Jared]

There are a few downsides to auto flash vs. TTL flash. First, you need to let the flash know what your ISO and f-stop are or the flash won't know when proper exposure has been reached. Second, auto flashes often under expose when there are objects closer to the camera than your main subject--even if they aren't in the frame. Reflected light from these "subjects" can cause the flash to cut off early. Third, they won't auto zoom with focal length changes. Fourth, work off a single average reflectance for the scene and can't account for mostly lighter or mostly darker tones in the scene. No evaluative aspects of distance info to help determine correct exposure.

 

If you don't mind living within these limitations, and many photographers won't, they can be had for much less money than a dedicated TTL flash. Nice job working out a solution for your situation.

 

- Jared

[ramarren]

There are a few downsides to auto flash vs. TTL flash. First, you need to let the flash know what your ISO and f-stop are or the flash won't know when proper exposure has been reached. Second, auto flashes often under expose when there are objects closer to the camera than your main subject--even if they aren't in the frame. Reflected light from these "subjects" can cause the flash to cut off early. Third, they won't auto zoom with focal length changes. Fourth, work off a single average reflectance for the scene and can't account for mostly lighter or mostly darker tones in the scene. No evaluative aspects of distance info to help determine correct exposure.

 

If you don't mind living within these limitations, and many photographers won't, they can be had for much less money than a dedicated TTL flash. Nice job working out a solution for your situation.

 

- Jared

 

 

I'm well aware of the "downsides" ... never called them downsides before! ... of non-integrated flash automation, Jared. To me, they're just what you need to do to use a flash: set the ISO, set the exposure time, set the aperture, then adjust per the scene requirements; avoid situations where the automation will get fooled and go to manual when you can't. I manually meter about 90% of my flash work (mostly table top and macro shooting) because I find it simpler and more consistent than dealing with automation systems that can be fooled by a lot of things and/or otherwise misbehave. 

 

Call me a Luddite; I just try to keep these things as simple as possible. Flash automation has confused me more than it's helped over the years... ! 

[sillbeers15]

Has anyone successfully downloaded (through local Leica store) V2.0 firmware into their V1.0 SF58 for SL compatible use?