M9: slower lenses and flash vs faster lenses

[Huss]

The M9 can have issues with older camera batteries when using flash. Blank frames will result, so be sure to have a newer battery in the camera indoors.

My M240 does that too. With fully charged batteries - OEM not aftermarket - I get unsynced shots more often than not. Black images. Happened with my M-E too, and at the time I thought my 24d flash was defective (I had bought it used) so I bought another used one. Nope, it's the camera battery for some reason.
Of course both flashes work pefectly on any other camera I try them on, no matter what brand. Including an M7, Nikon F6 , Minolta Xk etc. Anyway, if I need a digital camera w flash I use a D750 with SB500. Works perfectly everytime.

 

[sepiareverb]

I thought it was the flash as well, but newer batteries completely solved the problem. Indeed a strange one.

 

[Huss]

I thought it was the flash as well, but newer batteries completely solved the problem. Indeed a strange one.

It is weird and extremely frustrating. I have two Leica OEM batteries, and at least one showed that annoying age related message that has since been fixed w the latest firmware upgrade. But the camera and batteries work perfectly for any type of photography bar flash photography.
Im not going to buy another $190 battery to just make the flash work correctly, and for who knows how long until that battery has become too old!

No other mfg has these types of issues, so I find it unnacceptable that we have to accept them with Leica. Anyway, that's why if I know I'm going to use a digital camera with flash for an assignment, I reach for my Nikon.

 

[drec]

So after a week and a half of shooting with the M9 at iso640 or lower along with an sf-58, I'm feeling pretty comfortable shooting with flash indoors. The sf-58 interface definitely isn't as nice as that on my SB-700 but it is powerful and versatile.

I am able to stop my 35/2.8 C down comfortably to f5.6 close-up. In mixed lighting, I am finding that reds are blown out. I have no doubt that this wouldn't be an issue outside.

Next, start making a LR profile for flash and reds!

 

[willie_901]

... "In mixed lighting, I am finding that reds are blown out. "
...

The link to your photo is broken.

When you wrote blown out I assumed either the charge storage capacity of red sensor photo-sites was exceeded or the ISO amplification of the DC voltages from the sensor photo-sites were clipped by the analog-to-digital converter. I don't believe a LR profile can solve these issues.

When using off-camera flashes in some interiors often white ceilings appear to have pink to faint red hues. One tedious solution is to gel the flash to match the dominant interior light source's color temperature. I typically chose a different tedious fix. I selectively altered the affected regions' color temperature(s) in LR, PS and, or NIK Viveza 2.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Next, start making a LR profile for flash and reds!

Your picture on Flickr is set to private. I can't see it.

I noticed what M-E tends to have red cast on the skin indoors under lights powered by Ontario Hydro, with or without flash. If in JPEG1 it is hard to correct to me.

 

[drec]

Pardon for the bad links. Here is the pic of my daughter with flash:

And a pic of buddies without

And yes, whitish ceilings in both shots.

By blown reds, I meant too much luminosity, resulting in loss of detail-- I think that's what I meant. You can see it on her red sweater. Thorsten posted some suggestions about how to deal with oranges and reds on his site-- decrease luminosity and perhaps some saturation, possibly increase blacks and contrast...I tried this and it worked somewhat; unfortunately I do not have the altered pic on the road...

 

[drec]

The pics are both originally in DNG

 

[drec]

I'll look more into gel on the flash. I can tolerate the reddish hues on white skin without flash don't want the reds looking so washed out.

I can't stand post processing and want as much of an in-camera solution as possible.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I prefer one with flash because skin tones are better rendered and red on sweater is not as significant as pink-red on the right face on the second one.

 

[willie_901]

I still can't see these examples. Selective luminance reduction is a simple quick fix in LR.

I don't use Fujifilm JPEGs, but it's possible a custom in-camera JPEG preset combined with a different in-camera JPEG film profile could at least minimize, or maybe even eliminate, eliminate the need for post-processing.