Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/10/23
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Trying to find out about CLE flash compatibility, I visited Craig Huxley's site in Australia. He fowarded the question on an Austrialian Minolta users group, and came up with some great info. It turns out that not only is the CLE compatible with the larger and more flexible flash units for the X-700, but you can also connect multiple flashes together! This makes it unique among Leica M mount cameras. >From: Jim Williams <jlw@novia.net> >Subject: Re: Fwd: CLE & Flash Compatibility >Sender: owner-minolta-l@nas.isc.rit.edu >To: minolta-l@osfmail.isc.rit.edu >Reply-to: minolta-l@nas.isc.rit.edu > >==================BEGIN FORWARDED MESSAGE================== >As far as I can find out, the Minolta CLE was Minolta's first camera >with TTL flash, followed by the X-700. I believe this is correct, although the X-700 followed quite closely. >Apparently, they use the same TTL system, although I am not sure of it. Yes, they definitely do use the same TTL flash system. For quite a while I owned both a CLE (which I later foolishly traded for a Leica M-4P -- darn, I sure wish I had that CLE back now, as I'll never be able to afford one at the prices they bring nowadays!) and an X-700 simultaneously, and used the same flash system and accessories on both. > >I would like to find out for certain if the flashes for the X-700, >especially the larger 280 and 360, are fully compatible with TTL flash >on the CLE. Yes, in addition to its own Auto Electroflash CLE, any PX-series flash unit is fully compatible with the CLE's TTL system. > >I would also like to know if the 360's Minolta's triple connector to use >3 flashes on the CLE. Yes, this accessory will work. If you don't want to use the triple connector, you can also "daisy-chain" the units together with full TTL metering. For example, you could mount a 360PX on the camera's hot shoe, and use a Cable CD to connect it to another 360 (or 280.) Or, you could mount your first 360 remotely with an Off-Camera Shoe (which has its own accessory socket); connect a Cable OC from the camera's hot shoe to one accessory socket on the flash; a Cable CD from the other accessory socket to an accessory socket on the second flash; and so on, as far as you want. In principle there's no limit to how many units you can add, although results start getting unreliable once the TOTAL length of the cables starts getting much over 25 feet or so. Thanks to the fact that it used off-the-film metering for both ambient light and flash, the CLE was capable of some great flash tricks that would be very difficult, if not impossible, with almost any other camera. For example, I used to shoot controlled blur-plus-flash action shots, fully automatically, via the following trick: I'd set up my two 360PX units, joined by an "extra-long" Cable CD I had made by cutting off the ends of the Minolta cable and splicing in about 20 feet of four-conductor telephone cord. One of the units would go on a lightstand, the other on the camera. First, though, I'd prepare the camera by putting a strip of masking tape in the flash shoe, so it covered the sync (center) and flash-ready (left) terminals, but NOT the TTL (right) terminal. Then I'd dim the room lights and tell the model (usually a ballet dancer) to start moving. With the flash-ready terminal taped over, the CLE's autoexposure system would set a long shutter speed appropriate for the ambient light. I'd watch the action through the viewfinder during exposure (impossible on an SLR, of course!) When I saw exactly the peak action I wanted, I'd press the "test" button on the camera-mounted flash. Both flash units would fire; the TTL system would control them for correct flash exposure; and the sudden burst of light would terminate the ambient-light exposure immediately afterward! The result would be a long, liquid-looking blur terminated by a sharp flash image of the exact pose I had chosen. Slick, huh? No, you can't do this with "second-curtain sync" because you don't have exact control over WHEN the flash exposure is made. But with the CLE, it was a cinch!