Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/03/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Carl, I usually use my Minolta meter to set the flash to the desired fill ratio. For example last night I was shooting some photos for the publicity of a new night club in downtown Nashville. Since they were wanting photos to have prints to include in press packs I was able to convince them to allow me to shoot Fujicolor SuperG 800 (Thank God as I would have hated having to light that black hole with strobes and all of those drunks running around...lawsuit city!) This night club has areas where there are acts on stage like a keroke (SP?) room, dueling pianos (I know in the south it is supposed to be dueling banjo's) and such. I metered the stage then had my assistant hold the flash to illuminate parts of the room triggering the flash with a radio slave. I set the flash to fire about -1/3 from what the stage lighting was. The beauty of the vari-power is that I can get as low as 2.8 from the 283 and that was using 800 asa film! or get the full amount of light from the strobe. I frequently use the 283 as a battery strobe to give directed fill light when away from electrical power, or when I need a portable light source. I have a Bogen clamp thing that lets me put the flash on a stand and holds an umbrella and this works nice for fill light also. For "spontaneous" flash fill I will use the Metz on the R6, and when ever I get around to buying the 40mz 3 on the R8. However; the kind of shooting I do very seldom requires this kind of lighting and I almost never use on camera flash. Now if I still shot news that would be a different story. Carl Socolow wrote >Harrison, do you meter the flash output when using a Vivitar 283 with >VP-1 in manual mode? Or do you have (ugh!) guide numbers calculated for >various outputs at a given distance? Having to meter and then adjust the >output for a desired fill ratio would seem to take away some of the >spontaneity of using a Leica. I know when using a Canon EOS with 540EZ >flash I can just program in -1/3, -2/3 or whatever fill flash and be >done with it. Harrison McClary http://people.delphi.com/hmphoto