Fill flash G1, Flash in general

[Benfidar]

Please let me try your patience as I am sure that this has been asked over and over, yet my search has not offered up an answer.

There has been many keystrokes spilt over the subject of fill flash and the G. I have found a few things on the G2 (i.e. meter on manual, turn on the flash, compensate -1 or -2). I have not found a good 'fix' for the G1, which, as you know has the speeds and the compensation on the same dial.

I have also found that flash shots with the tla140 are a bit harsh. Does anyone have suggestions for toning it down a notch. I have a Konica Hexar with the hx14 and am as happy as a clam with it, I had a interchangeable lens Hex in mind when I bought the G.

Warmly,

 

[Socke]

The workaround on the G1 could be as follows:

AE with flash turned off,
lock AE,
turn on flash and compensate.

 

[Benfidar]

Thanks, wow, that's simple. I don't know what the hub-bub was.

 

[Benfidar]

It turns out that that will not work. It sounded too 'normal' to me to be a work around. See this post.

http://contaxg.com/document.php?id=1769

24 October 2001
by Charez Golvala $♥
The G system flash circuitry is not as sophisticated as the SLR range (167MT et al not the really sophisticated RTS III) and cannot handle fill-in flash the same way in Aperture Priority mode. With an SLR you can lock the ambient exposure with the flash turned off, turn the flash on and use the Exp Comp dial to adjust the flash. This does NOT work with the G camera's AP mode. Although the AEL is meant to (and does when used on its own) lock in the shutter speed, the Exp Comp dial overrides this and changes the shutter speed, rather than adjusting the flash.

What you CAN do however is to switch to manual mode to "lock" the shutter speed and then use the Exp Comp dial to change the flash exposure. This will dial down the flash, but beware, at close distances (commonly the 1 metre minimum that you use with a S90 for portraits) the flash may still be too powerful to give a fill-in effect. Also, you will not be able to turn down the TLA140 using this method - only the TLA200 has the circuitry to take this on board.

It is a bit annoying (from one who rarely criticises Contax) that the clever tricks of even the older Contax cameras and flashes (the 167MT goes back over a decade and the TLA30 even longer) were not programmed in to the G series and more so since we are talking chips not valves! However, you can use a Vivitar 283 or other auto-flash (TLA30 for example) as Jack Kurtz has suggested in his excellent article. Charez

 

[Socke]

Since the exposure compensation he mentions is only available in AE mode on the G1 this article seems to be about the G2.

From the G2 manual, Page 158:

Using the Exposure Compensation Dial
In the TTL auto mode, the amount of flash light couples with the camera's exposure compensation dial. If you want to bring out the modd b y adjusting the amount of flash, use the exposure compensation dial.

I use the manual exposure and exp. comp. method described above and this works with the TLA30 and TLA200 on the G2 I have, for me it is easyer and faster than locking AE with the flash turned off.

I don't have the manual for the 167mt, but when I use it in AE with the flash turned on it switches to X-Sync Speed and turning the exp.comp. dial shows a + or - in the viewfinder without changing the shutterspeed.
Changing the aperture doesn't change shutterspeed on the 167mt in AV but it does on the G2. On the 167mt it stays at 125/th and on the G2 it varies up to 1/200th.

But it is possible that the TLA140 doesn't have flash exposure compensation.

 

[Benfidar]

This is what I found on Kyocera for the G2

ISO 100 film speed will be assumed in this illustration. The first task is to meter the ambient scene with the flash turned OFF. In the Auto mode (Aperture Priority, AV) turn the f-stop ring until X sync (1/200 sec.), or the closest you can get to it, comes up as the active shutter speed in the viewfinder. This will provide approximately f11 at 1/200 second, outdoors. With the flash turned OFF, lock the resulting shutter speed via the AE Lock (the position on the main power switch of the camera beyond the ON position. Set the Exposure Compensation dial to -1 (minus one) for a 1:2 ratio or -2 for a 1:3 ratio. Turn the flash on to TTL and shoot.