Slave Flash Technique CA70,75,85 Power Shot

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

O.K. I should have save up a few more pennies and purchased a digital with
an external flash connector.

My A70 built in flash does not quite do some of the group shots I want to
do. My efforts to add a flash with a synch trigger are less than hoped for.
Is there a setting, a trick I am missing? The internal sensor seems to over
react to the extra light and I get a darker picture with the extra flash
rather than a brighter, lighter picture.

I searched the web, check magazines at the news stand, and browsed books at
the store and the library. There is no literature other than "You can use a
slave flash if you need more light." Not!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Vernon Kuehn wrote:
> O.K. I should have save up a few more pennies and purchased a digital with
> an external flash connector.
>
> My A70 built in flash does not quite do some of the group shots I want to
> do. My efforts to add a flash with a synch trigger are less than hoped for.
> Is there a setting, a trick I am missing? The internal sensor seems to over
> react to the extra light and I get a darker picture with the extra flash
> rather than a brighter, lighter picture.
>
> I searched the web, check magazines at the news stand, and browsed books at
> the store and the library. There is no literature other than "You can use a
> slave flash if you need more light." Not!
>
>
As I understand it you need a special slave that has a setting to ignore
the preflash, like the Phoenix D91
http/www.phoenixcorp.com/Flash/Digital_Flash/digital_flash.html
or the DSF-1s DigiSlave Flash
http/www.steves-digicams.com/dsf-1s.html

 

[Era]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Vernon Kuehn wrote:
> O.K. I should have save up a few more pennies and purchased a digital with
> an external flash connector.
>
> My A70 built in flash does not quite do some of the group shots I want to
> do. My efforts to add a flash with a synch trigger are less than hoped for.
> Is there a setting, a trick I am missing? The internal sensor seems to over
> react to the extra light and I get a darker picture with the extra flash
> rather than a brighter, lighter picture.
>
> I searched the web, check magazines at the news stand, and browsed books at
> the store and the library. There is no literature other than "You can use a
> slave flash if you need more light." Not!
>
>
I have experinment with a slave on my A95. Been there and done what U
mentioned.

You need to set your setting to Manual. There is a "delay" with the
camera sensor setting (something like that!)
------------ And now a word from our sponsor ----------------------
For a quality mail server, try SurgeMail, easy to install,
fast, efficient and reliable. Run a million users on a standard
PC running NT or Unix without running out of power, use the best!
---- See http/netwinsite.com/sponsor/sponsor_surgemail.htm ----

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

> Vernon Kuehn wrote:
>
>> O.K. I should have save up a few more pennies and purchased a digital
>> with an external flash connector.
>>
>> My A70 built in flash does not quite do some of the group shots I want
>> to do. My efforts to add a flash with a synch trigger are less than
>> hoped for. Is there a setting, a trick I am missing? The internal
>> sensor seems to over react to the extra light and I get a darker
>> picture with the extra flash rather than a brighter, lighter picture.
>>

Canon A series cameras use a pre-flash to calculate exposure. It
fires only milliseconds before the main flash but it's often strong
enough to trigger the slave on your main flash. Result: you see the
main (slave) flash go off; you think it's illuminating the picture; it
isn't. It has fired and extinguished before your camera actually takes
the picture.
Try shooting in manual mode, where there's probably no pre-flash (at
least there isn't on my A75). I'm getting excellent results in manual
mode, at 1/125th and whatever aperture my flash meter indicates, with a
White Lightning 10,000 bouncing into an umbrella. If you don't have a
meter, just take some test shots at various apertures. You must, of
course, use the on-camera flash to trigger the slave but I find I can
turn it back to 1/3 power which means it has virtually no effect on the
final picture.

-- Ron