Leica has TTL flash and FP flash, ZI not

My father once said, "if you want flash, take a Nikon. That's what they are made for".

Another thing he liked to say "Alles kalter Kaffee!" which is a curteous way to say that something is old and boring bull....

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Contax 167MT, Planar 50/1.7, Metz 30BCT reflected from a white napkin held by the waitress
 
I had to use flash this past weekend for the first time in about a year. I had ISO100 Fuji Realia loaded in my Iskra and needed a couple of handheld indoors shots. It's a little old Sunpak Auto 121S with a built in PC cord. I'll get the film back on Friday, so I'll know then how well it works.

Would have rather been doing Tri-X@1600 sans flash, but Grandparents like color. Hope they can live with the 5x5s I'm having printed... :D

William
 
Maybe count me in as a minority but a Leica or a Z-I has to be the stupidest platform to use a flash on. I tend to only use fill flash unless we are talking about studio where the 35mm stuff doesn't even come out.

In my mindset, 35mm rangefinders with fast lenses are for available light shooting with slow shutter speeds. If I need a flash with 35mm, my Nikon SLRs are the tool.
 
backalley photo said:
mommy, what's a flash?
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HCB would have said on a RF ist is a "bourgeois concept " ;)
I once bought a nice Metz for the R, I used it twice during the last 3 years, and I did not like the results very much. Maybe for fill-in against the light, but this often looks unnatural too.
Best,
bertram
 
Well I use flash, but don't see the need for TTL metering,etc. on a rangefinder. For my nighttime views (see my gallery) sometimes I use a little fill flash, but not sync'd to the camera, It is night, so I have a 1 sec or longer exposure time (camera on tripod, cable release, etc). I just yell at my buddy "FIRE!!" when the shutter is open. Works almost every time.
Besides on some of the old cameras I like to use there is no flash sync.

In the studio, with studio strobes, it doesn't matter what the shutter speed is, as long as it sync's with the flash. Modeling lights are dim in comparison to the output of the strobes.

Never did like on-camera flash.
 
I think that there's a place for flash. I rarely use mine, and I don't think that I've ever had it on my Bessas, but flash has really made some pictures for me.

Here's a portrait using my Canon F-1 and either my 85/1.8 or 135/3.5. No sophisticated TTL or anything, I just pointed the flash vertically and bounced the light off a white card mounted on the flash and the white ceiling. To me, flash works best when you don't notice that it's being used.
 
Flash is very usefull for equalising light. For example, taking a group photo at the dinner table under a porch with bright sun outside. Using a bounce flash I can increase the ambient light level at the table to match the outside, so that you can see the lovely scenery in the distance rather than just big slabs of white.

I think some people who use Leica's just bag the flash since they dont have the knowledge or skill to use it effectively. If you flash shots look terrible, its not the flashes fault.

Daniel.
 
Anyone who can use an all manual camera such as a Leica can figure out how to use a flash. The Leica M cameras have a top sync speed of 1/50th. That gets a bit rough using outdoor fill flash. I used Kodachrome 25 and Panatomic-X with my Nikon F (1/60th) and a Vivitar 283 for most of my outdoor fill-flash shots. Those days are gone.

Flash sensors, TTL or otherwise, can be fooled by scene content as are light meters. If you want to try a camera "made to use with a flash", try a Canonet or Minolta Hi-Matic 9 or other fixed-lens camera with follow-focus and leaflet shutter. X-Sync is at any speed, and it uses the distance to set aperture. The Canonet QL17 G3 reads out the F-Stop used, and will add in the exposure value picked up by the meter if left in "auto". You can change the shutter speed to get the balance of natural light and flash.

Leica did make an M-Mount Summicron with a Built in Compur shutter so that it could be used up to 1/500th of a second with flash. It is very rare. But who says Leica did not make a lens to be used with a flash...
 
snaggs said:
I think some people who use Leica's just bag the flash since they dont have the knowledge or skill to use it effectively. If you flash shots look terrible, its not the flashes fault.

Daniel.
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Rather because the sync time of 1/60 is a PIA I suppose. It DOES need a lot of expereince and knowledg to get an unobtrousively balanced photo with a flash but it's sometimes the only way to get extreme contrasts of under control-

And it is simple: Those who make available light beeing their religion MISS such photos. Basta. And i have missed to many meanwhile that I now begin to deal seriously to deal with the fillflash issue.

Regards,
Bertram
 
Those who make available light beeing their religion MISS such photos.
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Their bible has a serious omission - flash is available light too!

Daylight fill flash can be done on the Leica M without too much trouble, provided you use very slow film or an 8x ND filter and a powerful flash. Heck - I got 4X ND for my SLRs too, none of which sync slower than 1/125. Apply the Sunny f/16 Rule and you'll see why. :cool:

This page is indispensible for understanding daylight fill flash: http://www.dantestella.com/technical/fill.html
 
It's only available if you bring it in the first place.

I'm learning manual flash now, and I'm really wishing my HiMatic 9 were working. The GSN does a fine job but I'm never quite sure what it's doing with that shutter other than I'm somewhere between 1/500th and 1/30th.
 
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