Copy pastying from the long thread on photo.net
"Many people have commented having difficulties with the flash on the Hexar. I hope the following will help. The flash has two modes p.full (full power) and auto. With the camera on P and the flash on p.full, the camera is now in flashmatic mode. In this mode the flash fires at full power, the camera adjusts aperture based on the distance form the subject, and the shutter speed will be set for whatever would be necessary for a properly exposed photograph regardless of flash but will not drop below the user set minimum. Setting the user set speed to 1/60 in this set up is obviously advisable. There are two drawbacks to this mode. One is the possiblity of overexposure with fast film. At distances closer than about 4' even f/22 is insufficient to prevent overexposure. The other is the the relatively slow shutter speed. There is little point in using p.full in A or M mode on the camera unless you are a fan of manual flash setting. The auto mode on the flash requires the camera to be set to A or M and the aperture which matches the film speed must be set. 100 speed film aperture is set to f/4, at 200 f/5.6, and at 400 f/8. In this mode the aperture stays put and the flash varies it's output according to it's built in light sensor. In A mode the shutter speed sets to whatever would be necessary for proper exposure regardless of flash. This can result in very long shutter speeds. In M mode the shutter speed is whatever you choose! Up to 1/250. My usual set up for a typical low light scene that requires flash is auto mode on the flash and M mode on the camera with the shutter set to 1/100. I've also had a lot of success with outdoor fill flash. I set the flash to auto mode, the camera to A mode, and the aperture to one value stop less than recommended. For example at ISO 100 I would set to f/5.6 rather than f/4. With the camera in A mode you get properly exposed background and the smaller aperture gives you less flash effect. Try it you'll like it. Finally, the flash whipped me at first, but an e-mail to Richard Caruna set me straight on how it worked. If any profit from this information, thanks should go to him. If it's confusing, it's because I confused his explanation."
And
"Manual Guide Number is fairly easy, you just hold the SELECT button down when you turn the camera on. Then you can use the UP/DOWN buttons to set the GN. It saves the GN, so if you always use the same alternate flash, all you have to do is turn the camera on with the botton held down,and you're good to go. The ability to use most (but not all) flashguns with the Hexar makes it pretty versatile, but the camera is really good for available light photography, so its not as useful as you might expect. Besides, the Hexar is so small and light, it would be a pity to lose the advantage by lugging around a big flashgun. The Konica flash seems about the right size for the camera. The best use for this feature, in my view, would be to share a flash between the Hexar and another camera, such as an SLR. I wanted to use my Contax TLA 200 on the Hexar, its smaller and more powerful and recycles faster then the Konica flash, but it doesn't work. All the other flashes that I've tried worked fine."
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"When using the flash in P-mode, Hexar will first use the aperture and shutter speed it would use when photographing without a flash. Just before flashing at the end of the exposure time, it will change the aperture to the value needed for the flash. When I noticed this I expected to see some overexposure on color slides, but that didn't happen."
Yea, I have a notepad file with these saved 🙂
Hope that helps
