In spite of the eloquence and expertise of Dr Flash and others on the
list, flash remains something of a "black art" for me. As I rarely use
flash, my usual approach is to simply put my non-Oly dedicated flash on
TTL and fire away. For info, the flash is a Braun 340 SCA (full TTL
with the correct adapter shoe), in auto it has two selectable F stops
(F4, F8), a swivel/bounce head with zoom (28-50-100). The filter set
includes a diffuser (coverage for 21mm), ND4, and coloured filters.
So, I'm taking a flash 101 course, which looks to cover pretty much all
the topics. I'm in an interesting position as the only film shooter in
the group (we're 8-10). Some of the CanNikon gang appear to have serious
gear, and some of those camera/flash combinations are probably more
intelligent than I am.
After a couple of courses it's obvious that I'll have some challenges
and some of the concepts will be theoretical rather than practical
(e.g,, flash compensation, though the instructor lent me an EOS to work
with; varying sync speed). My dedicated flash has some significant
limitations, especially no or only very basic power control (filters on
the flash). That being said, the instructor was quite intrigued that I
had full TTL capability both on and off camera.
One of the things we've looked at is compensation (both exposure and
flash). So, this weekend I'm planning to spend some time test shooting
to see what happens with various setups under TTL. In the meantime, I'd
be grateful for some info on how exposure compensation on an OM2N
affects TTL flash. I assume that it will affect both metering and flash,
which is controlled by the meter (I believe modern N*kon bodies, for
example, treat the two independently). Is this correct? However, that
brings up another question: if exposure compensation is active, how does
the OM actually compensate, when it automatically fires as 1/60 with a
dedicated flash?
As a third question, AG and Dr Flash have talked about underexposing the
background by 1 or 2 stops. One method mentioned was to set the aperture
for 1/30 exposure, and letting the OM fire at 1/60. I understand the
concept - and here my ignorance is showing - but does this work in
straight auto or in TTL as well?
In anticipation of suggestions to get a different flash.... Yes, I've
thought about a T32, though it appears only slightly more flexible than
the Braun, and a Vivitar 285, which doesn't do TTL but allows control of
flash intensity. However, the lazy side of me doesn't want to throw away
TTL.
As far as sync speed is concerned, I could always get out my Pen F,
which syncs at all speeds. Of course, no TTL, and life is probably too
short to deal with other challenges!
Martin
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