When using the SF-20 flash unit, I sometimes see both a 'flash ready' indicator as well as a red '>' LED. Can I disregard the red '>' LED which advises me to use a wider aperture or slower shutter speed (<1/50 sec) than the ones I've selected? (Assume my subject is indeed, within the range indicated on the LCD on the back of the camera.)TIA.

-- RICHARD FULCO (CALCINC@MN.RR.COM), April 11, 2002

Answers

yes. i want to know the answer to this too.

-- john molloy (ballyscanlon@hotmail.com), April 11, 2002.

Once a TTL flash has been activated in the shoe the ambient metering is cancelled and the diode indication is irrelevant.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), April 11, 2002.

"Once a TTL flash has been activated in the shoe the ambient metering is cancelled and the diode indication is irrelevant. "

On which camera? On an M6TTL with a Metz 54-MZ3 in TTL mode the flash does not affect the camera's ambient light meter reading at all. Why would it?

-- Robert Schneider (rolopix@yahoo.com), April 11, 2002.

Richard:

The ">" is telling you what direction (wider in this case) you need to turn the aperture ring for a correct AMBIENT exposure -- the TTL flash exposure will be corrected automatically at the point of exposure. This is actually of bennefit to help you in balancing your flash exposure to the ambient exposure (where possible and if you should decide to do so), but is not required for accurate flash exposure.

The confusion in some of the above responses may be the fact that the M6TTL will only fire the flash if its shutter speed is set to 1/50th or slower. Over 1/50th, the flash circuitry is autmatically shut off.

Cheers,

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), April 11, 2002.