[Leica] Odd digital M flash behavior

[tedgrant at shaw.ca (tedgrant at shaw.ca)]

Dante,
You are correct under these tight life circumstances, but also depending on 
ones years of experience.

However, it still would not have occurred to me under similar circumstances 
to use a flash. I probably would have automatically used an M8 or M9 with 
different lenses and shot everything that turned me on and without once use 
of flash.

We each have our methods in-relation to experience and comfort zone in using 
equipment under all kinds of light conditions. But it's really to each his 
own in how we shoot. And yes where one on occasion must rely on flash, it 
should function correctly whether an M8 or M9. Or any camera supposedly for 
use with a flash. Given your experience I'd be on the line or phone to LEICA 
asking for answers, certainly given the cost of these new cameras? They 
should be functioning properly if made to work with flash units.

Did you not try the flash unit with the camera at sometime before hand? Once 
again, if I were one to use a flash unit with any camera, I'd find out how 
well it worked with the camera before hand under any circumstance. Certainly 
considering I may not have used it before. I would make at least a half 
dozen snaps to make sure it was ready for use at the time of the ceremony or 
event I was going to shoot!

In the end I do trust you managed some good images considering your 
explanation of the elderly gentleman in question?
cheers,
ted




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dante Stella" <dstella1 at ameritech.net>
To: "Leica Users Group" <lug at leica-users.org>
Sent: Sunday, December 27, 2009 9:18 PM
Subject: Re: [Leica] Odd digital M flash behavior


> Ted and Marty,
>
> When you are shooting pictures of your own extended family, and among them 
> is a 91-year-old who almost didn't make it to this Christmas and may not 
> make it to the next, there is no redo, there is no second day of the 
> project, and no one is going to be very forgiving of failures, be they of 
> man or machine.  You can appreciate the consequences of getting burned by 
> not using a flash - including shadowed eye sockets, blue channel noise, 
> and inconsistent color balance across the frame.  I'm sure you can also 
> appreciate the consequences of shooting with an f/1.4 lens, not the least 
> of which is putting some members of groups squarely out of focus.  A lot 
> of this evades detection in the five seconds you have to check the frame 
> (if  you even get that).
>
> So you bring in a flash to push the light level into a comfort range for 
> the sensor and bring the aperture to a size that keeps everything in 
> focus.  Electronic flash photography has now existed for more than 50 
> years, and if Leica didn't believe in it, the company would not be out 
> selling $600 flashes for the S2 and the M9.  Nor would it have developed a 
> TTL and then a digital TTL system (well, Metz probably did it for Leica). 
> Nor would it have given Metz the serial codes for dedicated TTL ("GNC") 
> function on the Leica modules (Metz, in fact, makes the SF-24D and the 
> SF-58).
>
> I don't ask my M8 to autofocus, shoot at 64,000 ISO, or even compensate 
> for focus shift in lenses.  But I  do expect it to carry it its extremely 
> limited flash functionality without unpredictable behavior.
>
> Dante
>
> NO ARCHIVE
>
> On Dec 26, 2009, at 1:57 PM, <tedgrant at shaw.ca> <tedgrant at shaw.ca> 
> wrote:
>
>> Dante asked:
>>>>> What I got last night, repeatedly, was a full-power preflash followed 
>>>>> by a
>>> "normal" preflash.  And this was always on the first shot after the 
>>> camera
>>> was turned on, even if you gave it a second to recognize the flash.
>>>
>>> Anyone else experience this?  It didn't look like low batteries in the
>>> flash or the camera.  My wife (being ever so practical) thinks this can 
>>> be
>>> solved by "buy[ing] a Nikon [D700]."  But I am not one to let
>>> troubleshooting go so easily.<<<<<<<<<<<,
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Nichols" responded:
>>
>>> Hi Dante,
>>> Simple solution.  With Leica lenses, just forget the flash. ;-)<<<<
>>
>>
>> Hi Dante,
>> Jim is quite right! FORGET THE FLASH!
>> It is quite simple really... forget the flash  I don't even own one and 
>> rarely if ever used flash with any of my M cameras over the years. Have I 
>> been burned? Yep on a couple of occaisions, but no big deal. If you can 
>> see it .... YOU CAN SHOOT IT! :-)
>>
>> All my Christmas happy snaps beginning to end were as "you see it, were 
>> motivated, "SHOOT!" And they were fine. Down loaded with LR, fiddled and 
>> into PhotoShop second look.... print! And not one lost frame other than 
>> for a couple because I hadn't set the ASA to 320.
>>
>> Go for broke with your M8, shoot a ton of images with the flash buried 
>> under a pile of rocks!! This will keep you from digging them up in 
>> panic.. :-)
>>
>> cheers,
>> ted
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Leica Users Group.
>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information


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