I think maybe I was too hasty.
After sleeping on it and re-reading my own gripes, I have cooked up a mod.
I know, I know. It's a bit presumptuous to consider modifying a Maitani
design. I know I'll have to atone in some way. Maybe if I
do good work, the Master will forgive me. :)
To solve the camera movement at EI 100 in open shade, I'm gonna try some
moderate saturation EI 400 portrait film. Two stops of
more speed a bit of practice should solve that. Kudos to the internet sites
dedicated to the XA.
Turning to flash with EI 400, it seemed like
a.) There's more light than is needed at the camera-imposed f4 and
b.) It's all going to the middle.
For inspiration, I pulled out my Wide Diffusor for the T32. I found my
collection of miniature gels. Sure enough, I found a gel
that measured about 2 stops of ND, and several diffusers to choose from.
I laid the ND on the A11 and with an Xacto, and scored the gel. I needed a
block of ND over the A11's light sensor and a narrow
band of ND across the middle of the tube. Using double-stick, acid-free,
removable, 3M Photo tape, I stuck that down, very slowly,
keeping the adhesive away from the hot zone in the middle.
Then I cut a bigger rectangle of diffuser, with a notch over the light sensor.
(If the sensor "sees" the diffusor material, the gel
will "cup" light right into the sensor. Instead, it should 'see' the room
light.) There's a notch over the film speed window on
the A11 too. That's overkill because this flash will always be set to 400.
Done. It's ready for a test.
Here's the test: For flash pictures, I'll turn the flash on with a full-up
click. Next click one notch down to f/2.8, a second
notch down to f/4 (the default flash position), a third click will bring me to
f/5.6, then finally, a fourth click will set f/8.
f8 should be sharper, the 2 stops of ND over the sensor will instruct the flash
that 2 more stops of light is needed. The diffusor
will begin to even out the hot spot. I may run out of distance with that ND
over the middle but that's what test rolls are for!
I'll post my findings, obviously.
Lama
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