Leica M + Flash SF 40

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However in the user manual, it is said that you can use:

Usable batteries - Alkaline batteries, Lithium batteries or NiMH batteries.

 

Best,

Franck

All  of them are batteriies..., but not all are "recargables".

 

Thank you JTO, good information.

 

 

 

Francisco.

[fweens]

I only know rechargeable NiMH ;-)

Franck

 

All  of them are batteriies..., but not all are "recargables".

 

Thank you JTO, good information.

 

 

 

Francisco.

[terrycym]

Strictly speaking, they are cells. A battery is a collection of individual cells like what you get in a car.

[Ron Weissman]

I shot an event this weekend using an SL and SF64 using, as I always do, rechargeable eneloops. Never had a problem using these batteries with Canon, Sony or Leica flashes. I was shooting from a platform at night, outdoors, onto a dark stage, about 100+ feet away so really stressed the flash. No issues whatsoever. with flash or batteries.

 

And I've had no battery-related issues with the SF40, either, on my M, though flash performance itself is a bit inconsistent, for reasons documented elsewhere on this thread.  I also own Nissin i40 flashes for Sony and for Fuji and have had zero problems (except for a very easily broken cheap-o flash foot). The Sony and Fuji flashes perform much more consistently than the SF40, one assumes, because of the superior TTL software and the lack of a need to "estimate" aperture the way Leica has to do. But, then again, at least the SF 40 costs a lot  more than the non-rebadged Nissin flashes. Mediocre TTL performance must be expensive to engineer!

 

As I noted elsewhere, I found that using TTL flash with a shutter speed of 250 on the M (bizarre since max flash sync is 180) was the only way to get relatively consistent TTL performance from the i40 when doing bounce flash.

[ECohen]

I have the SF 40... it is just an OK strobe, sometimes its perfect and sometimes you have to work around its quirks.

Batteries may have something to do with the performance. But honestly it is just a crappy strobe. A good value if it were a just Nissan but as Leica product made to match the M240's performance its not up to snuff....and forget the price....which is insulting for the way its designed and works.
 

Don't get me wrong, I'm doing just fine with working around SF 40's short comings with the help of members on this forum, espically FlashGordenPhotography....Thank You.....with his permission I'll reprint his advice to me?

 

I bought the SB40 for the rare times that I want/need an on camera flash  but still prefer to use the M.
I wanted to try to get away from using a DSLR, for all the reasons we all use and love the M.

This is just one of those things that the Leica M does not do as well as some of the other camera manufactures. What I'm saying is the SB40 works OK but Nikon's on camera flash blows Leica and Nissan away. My experience is with Nikons SB800 (on Nikon bodys) and in every way its better and far more consistent than the SF 40 is on the M

I am disappointed that Leicas technology and suburb design does not extent to on camera flash....but I'm going to just live with it and not expect Leica to care about its short comings.Its just not something that Leica deems important

Our/my problem with the SB40 is that we expect it to work as well as our cameras do. I'm sure many of us have used Nikon and Canon and we expect the Leica flash to work as well.......and it works fine but it works like an off brand strobe ...which it is.

Edited August 24, 2016 by ECohen

[Luke_Miller]

Never shot with the SF-40, but have shot with the SF-58 a bit. My experience bouncing the SF-58 in TTL may be applicable to SF-40 users shooting it on the current digital Ms.  One of the things I found is that the Leica TTL flash exposure control appears to default to balancing the flash with the ambient  light levels.  This is similar to TTL-BL for Nikon shooters.  What this means is that if there is a bright background or light source in the frame the flash output will be very low.  In some cases the flash may not fire at all.  In other words, the ambient light will be primary and the flash output will provide fill.  Note that Auto Slow Sync cannot be disabled and that many of the results being seen with the SF-40 sound to me like Auto Slow Sync issues. I suspect that setting the shutter speed to 1/180 is how one disables it, but I have not seen this documented anywhere. I first noticed this with my M8.2 and M9, but it seems much more aggressive with my M-240.   Now I always bounce the flash so results may differ with direct flash.  

Edited August 24, 2016 by Luke_Miller

[simc444]

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On 3/24/2016 at 3:57 AM, dem331 said:

Ok I have a different theory, just been doing some more tests. First I also got failures using the lens on uncoded and TTL.

 

Then I realized that if you pressed the shutter release half way and waited for about 1/2 sec then fired it worked perfectly on all settings.  I took about 30 shots on differnt settings coded/automatic /uncoded and TTL /A and it works perfectly.  

 

Maybe this is the solution.  If it is why did Leica not just say? 

This also solved my problem.  Now the flash is working like a dream.  Thank you so much.  

Edited March 24, 2019 by simc444