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Re: [OM] OM4 & T-32 fill flash? (and follow up 283/G comment)

Subject: Re: [OM] OM4 & T-32 fill flash? (and follow up 283/G comment)
From: frieder.faig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wed, 1 Nov 2000 16:49:31 +0100
On Mon, Oct 30, 2000 at 09:44:42PM -0500, Mickey Trageser wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> There are a couple of things I have not been able to discern from handling
> the equipment, or looking at the manuals. With the camera and flash in auto
> otf mode, can I do fill flash? What effect does the +- knob have? Does it
> affect the flash exposure? Is the camera even looking at ambient light? Is
> there a threshhold at which the flash will not fire? Is there an indicator
> of this?  I had the flash on, colorful village and autumn leaves in the
> background with the shadowed subjects in the foreground. Selected an
> aperture that put the shutter on the longer side of 1/60, but the flash
> didn't go off, and the subject was totally dark. Classic picture of what not
> to do. I had hoped for 4 smiling, unsquinting faces. I got 4 silhouettes.

The OM-Cameras use the same auto-OTF-metering system for ambient-light
and to control the flash. The +- knob affects both. It is for the camera the 
same
than choosing another film speed. You can see in Auto-mode, that the camera 
will flash,
when the '60' is marked with two triangular marks.

The Olympus OTF-System isn`t first choice for fill in flash. IMHO, it is only 
useable when you want the forground subject and the background both 
'right'-exposed. But often you want the foreground subject underexposed
by 1~ 1½ Stop. For this use manual Mode, and select a wider apperture
at the flash-Computer. Not too much flexibility, but works. 
(OM-3 ti is the only Olympus which allows OTF-flash independent from the
shutter control)

My guess for your No-flash shoot: You selected apperture the right apperture to 
get
a s speed of about 1 /45. Then you used the +/- knob to get a -1 correction.
This led your camera to think: Oh, now I´ve got a faster film, I can shoot with 
the 1/90 sec,
I don`t need a flash...... 

> 
> If I set the camera to manual, adjust the shutter(1/60 or longer) and
> aperture so that the flash will expose to 1/2 stop less than the meter calls
> for, will I get a fill effect? Of course, in this instance I've flipped the
> calc panel and selected the appropriate aperture setting on that switch.

Yes, but a 1/2 stop less is only a slight fill in effect. Normal values are
about 1.3 ~ 1.7 F-Stop difference. But keep in mind, that the foreground object
is needed to be in the 20°- meassurement angle of the T32-Flash-sensor.

I´d like to have a compuer flash where I can choose more than 3-auto-appertures
for this kind of work....
 > 
> Also, there are plenty of times when the 'sufficient light' blinking doesn't
> happen, but the exposure is just fine (especially in large places). Is it
> that a full powered flash in auto mode won't be considered sufficient by the
> system? Or is the blinking just an indicator that the thyristor clamped the
> output?
> 
The light blinking is very accurate. It is not blinking even when there is only 
a 1/3-Stop
Value underexposure. But such a small underexposure is not visible in the 
picture,
until you`re doing side by side comparisons. 
> 
> Thanks to all you Zuikothusiasts!
> Mickey
> 
> 
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