>And, the G28 has dual flashtubes, one used for short end of zoom, other
for long end. The G-40 head zooms with the lens. It's a great setup.
When used together, the G28 fires at 1/3 power, then bouncing the G40
produces real nice portrait lighting.
The G40 flash is a must have item as the additional capabilities in night
mode greatly expand your creative opportunities.
As mentioned before, the flash power is determined primarily by distance as
retrieved from the AF circuitry. However it appears that Olympus
programmed in some "natural reflections" to prevent overexposure. So
therefore when shooting beyond 20 feet you may wish to exposure compensate
by +1/3.
I'm looking at some pictures I did for a church recently where I used the
IS-3/G40 combo with Fuji 800 film. Shots from 70 feet away look as good as
the ones from 7 feet away. The room had very bright white walls and the
walls and people were exposed perfectly. Usually what will happen
(especially with OTF) is that the massive bright white background will fool
the sensor into underexposing the shot. Not with the IS-3. I was using
both Program mode (ESP) and Aperature Priority modes with nearly identical
results. What excites me about the Nikon F5/F100 is that they now expose
flash based on distance too, with an almost identical "program" as the IS-3
has.
But, for indoor event photography I prefer to use the IS-3 in Aperature
Priority mode as the Program mode will almost always shoot wide-open. I
like a bit of DOF, so I usually set it to F8 or so which gives me usuable
range from close-up to about 30 feet. Also, the Program (ESP) mode doesn't
always give consistant flash-to-ambient ratios either as it is comparing
zones and trying to figure out what it is you are taking a picture of. If
you pop it into portrait mode it gets more consistant and so it is in night
mode too. But the standard Program (P for Park the brains <g>) mode kinda
varies a little bit as its fuzzy logic is working overtime on some of my
wierd compositions. I like to shoot into the lights a lot (into the sun,
silluettes, etc), and the Program mode really chokes up sometimes on the
backgrounds, but the flash exposures of the subjects are hardly ever wrong.
If I want absolutely consistant backgrounds I always use Aperature
Priority mode--period.
The real beauty of the IS-3's flash exposures is that whatever you focus on
is what will be perfectly exposed. The backgrounds (ambient lighting) will
vary based on your technique and which exposure mode you use.
One minor gripe about the IS-3, though. Make sure you take the camera out
of Macro mode if you are shooting distance. Even though it will put the
center of the image in focus, it may seriously blur the edges (mine is most
noticable on the top edge). I discovered this by accident.
Ken
Kenneth E. Norton
Image66 Photography
image66@xxxxxxx
(515) 791-2306
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