Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/08/22
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Pascal: They are dark because the Gold reflects more light than 18% grey, so the camera is shutting off the flash too soon. This is of course that you are within the working range of your flash at the f5.6 that the R8 picks in this situation. These type of shots are best done on manual, or at least on A using a wide aperture to give you the flash range and perhaps some exposure compensation depending on the colour of the scene. The R8 has a wonderful flash meter that you can use to meter an average tone in these situations and then know you have the flash set right. My best guess is that you were out of the range for the flash at F5.6. If this wasn't the problem, your camera may have been fooled by something bright in the scene. What were you doing using flash in a church anyways? If you had an M6 and a 35mm Summilux ASPH you probably could have used available light. Regards, Robert At 10:18 AM 8/22/99 +0200, you wrote: >Thanks to all who responded to my question on the R8 and underexposed >flash results. > >In my haste to get this off to the list, I forgot to describe what the >problem was exactly... > >Let's say you are in a church and wanted to photograph a side altar with >ornaments and so on above and around it. The ornaments are mostly in >yellow gold paint. The whole area is rather dark, no illumination other >than some daylight that comes from the glass windows in the church. > >Metz 40 MZ-3i is on the R8. Flash in TTL mode, no EV compensation (+ or >-) activated. Camera in P mode, lens turned to f/16 (max) and shutter >speed dial to 1/30s P, they way things should be if working in P mode. >Nothing fancy, everything should work out of the box as it is, at least >according to my knowledge. Film used was chrome (Fuji Velvia or Provia). > >Does it make a difference if you set the light metering mode on the >camera in either spot, matrix or central-weighted mode? (I thought I read >somewhere that the flash in P mode will always revert to >central-weighted, and in F mode to spot?) > >Anyway, results are mostly completely unusable. I would guess that the >results are way off (underexposure by -2 to -1 EV, I believe). My wife is >complaining... :-( > >Now, the funny thing is that I also took some color print shots (Fuji >Reala) of the SAME topics with my Leica Minilux, at least those that were >within reach of the maximum distance of the Minilux' small flash, and >those turned out to be perfectly usable. Clear, well-exposed ! And the >flash system of the Minilux is certainly not the elaborate 3D matrix of >Nikon, it is also central-weighted, so that should give more or less the >same results as the R8. > >I must be doing something wrong? All thoughts would be helpful. Thanks. > >Pascal >NO ARCHIVE > >-------------------------------------------------------- >See my photo pages at http://members.xoom.com/cyberplace/ >------------------------------------------------------- >On the Eighth day God created Macintosh >------------------------------------------------------- ><<< PGP public key available on request >>> > >