I don't have an M system yet, and really don't do flash photography, but I would not mind adding some fill into daylight photos. This would be for travel pictures where sometimes you cannot wait for the appropriate light. So with the M6 TTL flash sync of 1/50s, I was thinking that in order to obey the sunny-16 rule I would have to use a slow slide film (50 speed say) at f16. I still don't know why the sync speed would not be 1/60, but in any case, would this work OK?

-- Julio Marcos (jmarcos@mybanana.com), January 24, 2000

Answers

I don't own an M either but your reasoning is correct, that's how it would work during light which is in accordance with the f-16 rule. Up here where I live, close to the polar circle, the f-16 rule isn't very useful though, especially not during the winter (no sun).

You can of course get a larger working aperture if you use a neutral density filter on the lens, or a polarizer. How the flash in question (the flash for M-cameras) compensates for this I do not know.

-- Peter Olsson (peter.olsson@lulebo.se), January 26, 2000.

This is why the Leica-M is not very useful for fill in flash unless you have a massively powerful unit. Like many I am not at all convinced that the TTL Leica was really needed bearing in mind that Leica did not redesign the shutter (not that I think they should).

-- Robin Smith (rsmith@springer-ny.com), February 28, 2000.

Now I do have an M6 TTL with a matching Leica SF-20 flash. To my surprise, the TTL flash pictures work very good! I4ve settled for a 100 iso slide film (Astia) and even in daylight I can get good results at f16 with 1/50s shutter speed. The thing I like best is the ease of use of the flash. Even though you have to dial-up the aperture setting, this is very easily accomplished, as well as the exposure compensation. The system really shines in lower-light situations where a little bit of fill flash helps a lot.

-- Julio Marcos (jmarcos@earthlink.net), July 03, 2000.

If you're limited to shooting at f16 in most fill-flash situations, TTL doesn't provide any real advantage. You can take just about any sensor (or even manual) flash, set it for f8 or f11 (depending on how much fill you want) and just shoot.

I agree with Robin on this - TTL flash metering is one of the least interesting reasons to create a new Leica model. I also can't understand why the Hexar gets knocked for not having TTL flash when it's not particularly important.

I've always been partial to the flashmatic system - I think the results are generally better than TTL if the guide number is correct. Unfortunately, it seems to have disappeared from all manual focus cameras sometime in the 80s.

-- Jeff Spirer (jeff@spirer.com), July 03, 2000.

Leica has been accused of resting on their past accomplishments... The inovations are evolutionary, not revolutionary. However, I think the TTL version of the M6 addresses a problem that doesn't exist. The person who owns and uses an M series Leica should have enough photo savyness to know how to do fill flash... and the smarts to know that it is all but usless with a 1/50th of a second flash sync. The two problems are too much depth of field due to the required use of f16 or thereabouts. secondly, the is the risk of bad "ghosting" if there is any subject motion... a nice effect if you are trying for it, but not if it is not desired. I would bet that the general population of M users, those who actually take pictures, chuckeled to themselves when the TTL was released... I'm sure there was not a collective "WOW!" The best use of on camera flash is for fill, to get rid of shadows, especially in portraits. The most useful time to do this is in bright contratasty light. 1/50th of a second will not give you the flexibilty needed for this. Leica photographers have done without flash for years, and I'm sure that they still will for years to come. Can you say 'lux?

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), July 03, 2000.

You can but try-commonsense says that a small on-camera flash cannot put out enough light at medium distances to effectively provide a quarter or half ratio fill relative to daylight, which is extremely bright. Not unless you cut down the amount of daylight relative to flash by using a very high shutter speed-which is not an option on the Leica TTL.

But you never know, try and see if the results are to your liking.

Redesigning the M6, to the extent of making a new body, merely for TTL flash, in a classic available light camera like the Leica, makes no sense at all... Unless the new body has room inside for some as yet unannounced features in a future model.

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), July 03, 2000.

The main reason I can see in using a Leica M camera with fill flash is to use Leica lenses because, as most Leica fans will readily agree, they give the most pleasing image of any lenses. I recently crushed my tender sensibilities and used flash on my Leica M3 at a wedding reception for a friend. I would have used my Nikon, but it spontaneously stopped working just before I needed it, so I used the Leica M3. I'm glad I did, because it opened up a new realm for me that I had not even considered, that is, using flash with a Leica M camera. When I saw the results, I was delighted. Some of the portraits, in particular, just after sunset -- the "quiet light" period -- I thought were particularly nice because the trees in the background had those beautiful out-of-focus jewels of light that only only a Leica lens can produce. And even indoors, the flash shots were beautiful because of Leica lens. By the way, I used a Vivitar 283 on automatic. Since then, I've been searching the web for all the information I can find on flash fill so I can figure out how to use my Leica in bright light. One thing I'm going to be trying in the next few days is using a neutral density filter and the 283 set so it will provide minimal flash fill so the people in the photograph won't look as though they've been cut out from somewhere else and pasted on. It sounds complicated, but it might just work. If there are any people out there who can help, I'm all ears.

-- Jon Streeter (jonlucien@aol.com), December 07, 2000.

Just for clarification, you in TTL mode (ie with an M6 TTL) you do not have to set the aperture on the flash unit. Doing so only functions to display the distance on the flash LCD panel.

So, using the SF-20 is as easy as powering up with the switch in TTL mode, and firing away at any aperature you want. If you are like me, you'll probably want to dial in some negative exposure compensation on the flash though.

-- Tristan Tom (tristan@tristantom.com), May 05, 2001.