Re: [Leica] M6 TTL questions

[Simon Stevens <simon@camera-craftsman.com>]

> Actually, all of the gee-whiz-golly features that one expects with TTL

>flash are not there on the M. It can't set sync, and it even has no
idea
>what the Fstop you have set --- Remember, it is an all manual camera!
>You select the Fstop on the flash, say 5.6, put that on the lens, set
the
>camera to sync or slower and everything looks wonderful. If you change
your
>apature it will either under or over expose your flash.

Er, I realise that you have the camera in front of you and I don't
(yet), but are you sure you have had your flash set to "TTL", not
"auto"?  I think you may be misunderstanding how this works. In TTL mode
the flash doesn't need to know what aperture is set on the camera any
more than the ambient M6 meter does. The TTL cell reads off of the film
after the light has cleared the aperture. Whichever aperture is set, or
whether you are using filters, bellows etc, will all be automatically
compensated for without any need for linkages or anything complex.
Provided your flash is powerful enough you should be able to set and
reset the aperture at will because that cell reads after all the
variables are taken into account.

This is why in TTL mode the Quantum's display has no place for you to
set the aperture - you just do it on the lens. It's only in "auto" mode
where you are using the external cell on the flash where you have to set
the aperture according to what you have told the flash to expose for.
That's because the flash's sensor is riding up on the body of the flash
effectively in front of and independent of the aperture. Then getting
the two in synch is critical as you describe.

If you have any doubts you can call both Quantum and Leica. I just sopke
to them both and they have confirmed this.

Of course, I know that a mechanical shutter has to be set to the synch
speed manually.  My question about the display was whether the dinky
light shows confirmation of correct exposure as well as flash charge. My
apologies for not making myself clear on this. It's actually a small
point anyway since the QT2 has audible warnings and an extremely fast
recycle.

Thanks anyway,

Simon Stevens