Contax TLA 20

[streetshoot]

I had ordered a TLA 280 off of ebay for my G2 and just discovered he sent me a TLA 20 ... I'm kind of bummed and already requested a return but I'm trying to do research on this thing or get some sort of examples, but cant seem to find anything. Can anyone shed more light on the tla 20 or photo examples because if its a decent little guy I'll keep it, but it seems like people dont bother with it.

 

[Rico]

The TLA20 is a low-end, and older, model of flash for any Contax G or RTS camera. The TLA280 is a mid-grade, newer model with features like (manual) zoom and tilt. Both lack automatic mode, relying on camera TTL measurement and quench. Other than component aging and market price, you can consider them roughly equal versus a modern flash. For any G, the really nice flash is the TLA140: small, finished with Kyocera's titanium treatment, TTL capable. The TLA200 is known for giving red-eye because it's too short.

My Contax flash collection: TLA30, TLA140, 2x TLA280, TLA360. The latter is large for a G, but is sufficiently well-featured for modern use. I often deploy it in the studio in manual mode with Pocketwizard triggering.