A trick that Al taught me

Andy Kibber said:
Not sure if anyone mentioned it, but rear curtain synch generally looks better when dragging the shutter. I don't think you can do it with a Leica, but many (D)SLRs have the option.
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The M7/M8/M9 positively have. Don't know about the M6TTL - the parallel R series model could 2nd curtain sync, while my original M6 IIRC could not (or I did not care and failed to notice it?).

Among other rangefinderesque cameras at least the Contax G1/G2 can do it, with some Metz and Contax flashes (but none of the flashes in Contax G finish).

Sevo
 
payasam said:
Al Kaplan could not have spoken of the TTL sort of fancy modern stuff because he only used manual film cameras. In my estimation, there was little he did not know about their use and little he had not done with them.
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I don't think anyone could argue that. He was always interesting to read.
 
sevo said:
The M7/M8/M9 positively have. Don't know about the M6TTL - the parallel R series model could 2nd curtain sync, while my original M6 IIRC could not (or I did not care and failed to notice it?).

Among other rangefinderesque cameras at least the Contax G1/G2 can do it, with some Metz and Contax flashes (but none of the flashes in Contax G finish).

Sevo
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I stand corrected! I didn't know that M7 and higher had the option. I'm almost certain that my M6TTL did not.
 
Do M7/8/9 really have rear curtain sync? I can easily believe the digital M's can do it, since they have a wholly different shutter mechanism- but the M7? How is this activated?
 
The M7 has an electronic shutter, and three preceding R generations already had an electronic shutter with 2nd curtain sync, so they probably borrowed there...
 
The mere fact that a camera has an electronically controlled shutter doesn't mean that there is a way to set its synchronization to 2nd curtain sync. My Hexar RF has such a shutter but no way to select 2nd curtain sync.

Actually, the shutter control program (or mechanism) still has to provide the sync signal either with the end of 1st curtain travel or shortly before the beginning of 2nd curtain travel. If the microcontroller driving the shutter isn't programmed for both ways of issuing such a signal, then there's no way of getting such a 2nd curtain sync signal.

So - how do you set 2nd curtain sync on your M6/7?
 
Arjay said:
Actually, the shutter control program (or mechanism) still has to provide the sync signal either with the end of 1st curtain travel or shortly before the beginning of 2nd curtain travel. If the microcontroller driving the shutter isn't programmed for both ways of issuing such a signal, then there's no way of getting such a 2nd curtain sync signal.
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2nd curtain sync has been done on purely mechanic and plain electric shutters (and IIRC some flashes did even do it with cameras made many years before 2nd curtain sync was first marketed).

If it is left to the flash to process the signal, all that is needed is either a signal (on a extra hot shoe pin) when the 2nd curtain is released (preferably with a tiny pre-delay of 2-3ms, but on slow enough shutters it will do without), or a flash trigger implemented as a gate between "first curtain open" and "second curtain released" - and the latter is the way it has been done for other reasons on many purely mechanical shutter types, without even knowing of the future possibility of a 2nd curtain flash.

Sevo

PS: Going by the Metz SCA list, the M6TTL has 2nd curtain sync too!
 
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Good wedding shooters have got "dragging the shutter" down pat. It's one of those things you have to think of to actually do though.
 
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