[Leica] Building a better flash, was: A Red Dot story

["Peter A. Klein" <pklein@2alpha.net>]

Re. Flash, especially fill flash, and the slow Leica flash synch speed:

A faster X sych speed would require a different shutter design.  Since
the quiet cloth shutter is the heart of the camera, we probably can't
expect this. Faster synch focal-plane shutters are the multi-blade metal
variety, such as found in the Hexar RF and the Bessas, and they are
quite a bit noisier.

However, a flash manufacturer could easily provide us with a way to get
faster Leica shutter speeds with flash.  It would involve using a unit
that puts out many closely-spaced, lower intensity pulses over about
1/50 second, rather than one big zap.  ike a faster version of a 60s
psychidelic strobe light.  The Leica synch would have to be modified so
that the flash starts firing as soon as the first curtain begins to
open.  Alternatively, you could use the M synch socket on older cameras,
if the flash had a programmable delay that you could match to the M
synch delay.  The idea is that the flash strobes continuously as long as
the shutter slit is travelling across the film plane.

Customizing an $80-$200 flash unit is much more viable than redesigning
the Leica just to accomodate flash.  And there might be a larger market
than Leica users, since it could work with any traditional two-curtain
focal-plane shutter camera, including most classic SLRs.  It would eat
more batteries than normal "instantaneous" electronic flash.  But it
would give us viable fill flash for those times when we have to take
pictures at noon on a sunny day. 

This kind of flash sounds like a natural for Cosina to make, given the
"retrofit" usefulness of so many Bessa accessories.

I'm sure something like this already exists, but since I rarely use
flash, I've not followed the flash market closely.

- --Peter Klein