M10-R small(ish) flash with TTL and HSS

[7enderbender]

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Apologies for bringing this up again. And I know that M cameras are not often used with flash. 
I do like fill flash and HSS given that I live in the South. And I’ll be traveling to Italy in the summer so I’m revisiting this. I did buy a small cheap manual flash with a wireless foot and keep it on my bag. It works. And I can substitute for HSS with a grey filter/polarizer. But it’s cumbersome.

So I’m looking at other options again. There is the obvious SF40 which has all the specs - except for being bigger than I’d want, and a bit overpriced for what it is (rebranded Nissin). I saw that Godox is adding some new small flashes for Leica. But it didn’t list all the specs. Probably no HSS. So what alternatives are there? I’m also open to one of the little wireless cubes (X3?) for Leica but I’m confused which flash to combine it with and if that works with TTL and high speed sync. 
 

HSS is to stop down a bright background/sky in sunlight and fill in the foreground. I’m used to this coming from a Canon DSLR with their tiny proprietary flash that fits in your pant pocket. 

[7enderbender]

So, the whole thing still has a lot of open questions - but I went ahead today and ordered a used Leica SF40 to further test things. It seems small enough for travel and to use on an M body. If this does the trick with HSS the way I’m planning, I may actually go in a bit deeper and get the remote and the SF60 (or apparently the Nissin equivalent being compatible for off camera use). Curious now if the SF40 will also trigger via a third party manual flash. 
 

And yes, I know most people into M cameras don’t care much about flash photography. But I figured I’ll put in an update for now. 

[7enderbender]

Ok. I’ll just continue the conversation with myself in case anyone else has these questions. 
SF40 came in the other day (used and in like new condition, complete set with the little pouch, stand and diffuser). Build quality is decent - nothing to write home about compared to the older Metz stuff or even my Canon Speedlites, but certainly good enough it seems (not considering the regularly retail price). The layout of buttons is straightforward and quite nice actually compared to some other flashes that have LCD screens and menus and such. 
Given its smallish size it could actually be more compact if they designed the swivel head differently (more like Canon does). 
The foot locks automatically and has a little release button. Would be nicer if it had a classic screw down wheel. I could see that this becomes loose over time and it rattles slightly. So not really a small flash you would want to leave on camera all day while walking around (as I often do with my Canon DSLR and the tiny speedlite they offer - which still offers HSS via the camera menu - and it’s that setup that got me here trying to replicate some version of that for bright daylight fills and background control shooting wide open). 
 

The good news is that it works flawlessly and as expected in different modes. TTL does its thing. HSS engages automatically when going faster than 125th/s - and it even seems to work just fine with auto-ISO. So all is good and this will go into my little travel bag this summer. And I actually have a volunteer event shoot coming up in two weeks so I’ll give that a go also for some basic indoor candids and posed shots at a gallery. 
I’ll hold off on trying anything with wireless triggers or adding the SF60 at this point. I may still get the small Godox setup for more power/makeshift studio lighting at some point. For now the SF40 more than does the trick I think. 

[Bikie John]

Thanks for the update. You are not just talking to yourself, I imagine the radio silence is because none of us have anything useful to add. Hopefully this post will serve as a useful reference for anyone looking for info on the SF40.

Best wishes ... John

[FMB]

No lo dudes. SF40 es una pequeña joya que soporta todas las necesidades técnicas como flashes que doblan su valor.

 

Francisco.

[7enderbender]

Here’s another little update. In addition to the Leica SF40 I already had a cheap little FlashQ M20 which comes with a tiny little built in wireless removable foot. And I figured out that the M20 wireless transmitter and FlashQ flash can (manually and optically of course) trigger the SF40 off camera. Mind you, all this is very small and great for traveling. So let’s say you are in Paris in the Summer and want to use the SF40 during the day on HSS on camera for some headshots to stop down the background. And then you have two off camera, manual lights for later at the hotel if you want to have some options when taking pictures of the wife or girlfriend (or both).