Flash and the M2 , M3 , M4

Yikes....sorry about grain. My camera store just got a new digital darkroom installed, and she apologized for the quality of the disc....didn't look that bad here. I think my Picasa edits came through somehow.....
 
I don't like bright light, so I don't point bright lights at people.
 
I have been using a Metz 32 CT 7 for the past year, which is almost as big as the M6 itself. It has a large head which tilts and swivels as well as a smaller stationary head below it which can be turned on or off, depending on the situation.
 
I used a Flash on a Leica M3 Single Stroke that was bought CLA'd. The X-Sync was bad, and the contacts required replacement. I suspect the person who sold it to me never used it with the flash.

I do not use flash with the Leica's, and not with the Canon 7. Occasionally with the Nikon RF's. Most of the time it's with an SB15 on an F2AS or an SB-29 ringlight on a newer SLR; N8008s for film and a Nikon E3 for Digital. BUT The advantage of using an RF, as always, is lack of viewfinder black-out during the shot. This is especially true of SLR's where the flash's hot-shoe contact's do not always make a good connections. With an RF you can see the flash firing off. With an SLR, you often miss it. I guess newer cameras give you some sort of confirmation signal, blinking this or icon that.

I do use flash with my leaflet shutter RF's (and SLR's) where you get X-Sync at any speed. The Retina IIIS goes up to 1/500th Sync. The Fixed-Lens Minolta Hi-Matic 9 is the same, and offers follow-focus flash automation with manual flashes. The newer Hi-Matic E offers a pitiful 1/20th flash sync.
 
I used flash on my M2 just to test it and see that it was functional. Focal plane shutter flash is generally a pain. When I use flash it is with a leaf shutter camera like the Retina IIIS, Topcon Unirex, Mamiya C330. I don't own one of the cameras with an FP shutter that allows a high sync speed like the late model Nikons. Otherwise I would use them with flash as well.

-Paul
 
jaapv said:
Ben,
For once I agree with you 100 % :) ;) , well.... 90%,but for the little digital remark. The newest digital camera's have a dynamic range of 8 stops to in some circumstances 10, disregarding all Photoshop-tricks which imo come under the same heading as fill-flash or preexposing the film etc. 8 stops is exactly the usable range for printing in the zone-system. What was good enough for Ansel is good enough for me :p. It also happens to be the dynamic range of slide-film.
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What slide film has a contrast range of 8 stops? I want some!
 
Rich Silfver said:
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Rich, that's one bodacious fan-flash! I'm thinking of the scene in "Coneheads" where Dan Aykroyd takes a picture of his daughter and Chris Farley as they're on their way to their HS prom, and they look like they've been face-down on a barbecue.

BTW, where you you get your flashbulbs, and would they be maybe interested in producing film after Kodak and Fuji give up :D
 
Ben, there's a bunch of bulbs on eBay. I think I got about 200 or so myself.
 
Ben, you're right. Agfa RSXII 100 came close to 8, any others lag (far) behind and Agfa died :(. But I still have some in the freezer:).
 
If there was an iron rule that the rangefinder camera should not be used with flash, why on Earth would it be made with synchronisation? I dislike flash, but there are times when there simply is no option but to use it. While I have a small, gutless thyristor unit, I much prefer my wholly manual one which gives out much more light. Aperture can be set for rooms where walls and ceiling reflect light or for pitch darkness where there are no reflective surfaces at all. Unlike an auto unit or a TTL arrangement, the amount of light bounced back from the subject does not fool. An adapter for the M socket should not be all that difficult to find, nor a hot shoe to cord adapter for a flash which has no cord. I made one of the second, removable, back in 1985 for a friend. Not difficult at all. For fill flash, though I almost never do it, a neutral density filter makes the most sense. Who wants to switch a roll of film for perhaps half a dozen frames?
 
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