New Flash Hope

[cme4brain]

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Canon has brought out a new 270EX flash for its DSLR's, and it is everything we could want in a flash for the M8. It is diminutive in size- to match the small size of the M8, relatively powerful with a GN of 27meters, with a bounce head. If Canon can do it, why not Leica? I have the Metz 58AF equivalent for use on the M8, and it is bigger than the camera! One of the advantages of the M8 is its small size compared to a DSLR and this large Metz flash defeats that benefit. The Leica SF24D which I also own is a great size but too weak with no bounce capability, good only for short distance interior fill shots.

 

Go here for details on the Canon flash: Canon introduces Speedlite 270EX compact flashgun: Digital Photography Review

[marknorton]

I don't think you should assume it will work on an M8. Like the Nikon SB-400, this flash looks more like an extension of the camera's specific electronics and is controlled by menus on the camera. Keeps the cost and size down but means it cannot be used as a generic auto flash.

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[Jamie Roberts]

I don't think you should assume it will work on an M8. Like the Nikon SB-400, this flash looks more like an extension of the camera's specific electronics and is controlled by menus on the camera. Keeps the cost and size down but means it cannot be used as a generic auto flash.

 

 

Mark--interesting. All of Canon's high end flashes just click into the M8 and you can shoot away...So wouldn't an incompatibility here with basic operation (simple triggering of the flash) also mean that this flash wouldn't work on Canon's higher end models?

 

Anyway, the thing I don't like about this flash is that it only has a simple bounce, which would drive me nuts. I want a real bounce and swivel head on the flash.

 

I agree its overall size seems nice, though.

[marknorton]

Look at the back of it - no display, how are you meant to figure out what aperture to set the lens to? No sign of a sensor looking forwards, so probably designed to work with the camera's (Canon not M8) TTL metering. I may of course be wrong...

[lars_bergquist]

I do mostly use my SF24D on a coiled Nikon SC17 cable, giving me more freedom of bounce or directed light than a swiveling head can. To the connector that goes on the flash unit's foot I have attached a wrist loop. Now if you want to see what can be done with even a less sophisticated rig of that sort, go to Sean Reid's site ("Working with flash").

 

And I bounce the light even in pretty large and high-ceilinged rooms. That flash unit is all I need. I have others more powerful, but they lay idle.

 

The old man from the Age of Flashpowder

[grober]

I do mostly use my SF24D on a coiled Nikon SC17 cable . . .

 

Lars.

 

Since some of us are not familiar with this cable, how do you connect your Nikon SC17 cable to both the SF24D and the M8?

 

Thanks!

 

-g

Edited March 25, 2009 by grober

[Photon42]

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Since some of us are not familiar with this cable, how do you connect your Nikon SC17 cable to both the SF24D and the M8?

 

That's straightforward. One side of the SC17 resembles a flash shoe mount, the other one slides into the flash shoe of the M8. You can even extend on SC17 with another one. Very useful accessory for (wired) off-camera flash. Any more or less modern flash with auto function will do. I use a SB22 or SB27, for example. The SB22 was US$ 20, IIRC.

 

Regards

Ivo