I know this has got to be a problem... but want a reality check.

I just discovered my M4-2 will fire the flash, when the shutter is not tensioned, and you put "just a bit" of pressure on the release.

Folks.... I'm beginning to thing Sherry had a bad hair day on this camera. Close focus is off (previous thread). Shutter fires at the same speed at 1/15 and 1/30 (it's doing 1/15 at either speed setting) and now the flash problem.

Sigh. Has anyone seen this flash thing before?

-- Charles (cbarcellona@telocity.com), May 23, 2002

Answers

The flash firing without the shutter cocked is a "feature". This happens on my M4-P and M6 (non TTL).

-- Hadji (hadji_singh@hotmail.com), May 23, 2002.

you're kidding right?

-- Charles (cbarcellona@telocity.com), May 23, 2002.

Well, I don't know about the "feature" part. What I do know is that if I have a flash mounted on my M4-P or M6, pushing the shutter release will fire the flash (regardless of whether or not the shutter is cocked). I don't use flash much, so I never really gave it much thought. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but this does NOT happen on the M6TTL or M7?

-- Hadji (hadji_singh@hotmail.com), May 23, 2002.

I suppose then that its a _feature_ of the M4-2 then (essentially the M4-P). I can't remember the M3 doing this at all.

Can someone confirm this?

-- Charles (cbarcellona@telocity.com), May 23, 2002.

Flash firing with untensioned shutter is 100% normal.

-- John Collier (jbcollier@shaw.ca), May 23, 2002.

ugh... I'm too used to my leaf shutters... glad I wont be using flash much with this stuff....

-- Charles (cbarcellona@telocity.com), May 24, 2002.

Charles. The flash does not fire 'spontaneously', it requires pressure on the shutter. This feature (firing of flash when shutter is pressed without being tensioned) I believe is there to allow testing of the flash connection to see if it works without tripping the shutter. I don't believe it is accidental. That's the way my M4- P works. Can't blame Sherry for that.

-- Eliot (erosen@lij.edu), May 24, 2002.

Actually, it's a great way to 'pop' the flash for metering with a hand- held - saves having to rewire the flash to the meter and back again.

Also to test that the flash is working without burning film.

Occurs with M4, M4-2, but NOT my m4-P - OTOH my m4-p only syncs through the hot shoe - the PC outlet is NF at the moment.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), May 24, 2002.

Charles: Both of my M3's and 6 classic fire the flash without the shutter being tensioned. You take a shot, everyone knows you got a shot of them, except you because you didn't hear the shutter. Now you have a red face, or ears and they have red eye.

MJ

-- Mark Johnson (logical1@catholic.org), May 24, 2002.

The M is such a pain to use with flash, with these little idiosyncrasies - including firing the flash when you advance the film, a common fault - that it has driven me away from using flash at all. The advantage is, I now have less stuff to carry around.

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), May 24, 2002.

Yes, I'm glad someone else mentioned the "flash firing when you advance the film". VERY irritating when you miss the next shot waiting for it to recycle.

-- Marc Williams (mwilliams111313MI@comcast.net), May 24, 2002.

My point exactly... sometimes the recycle is a real pita when that happens. And YES it does sometimes fire not spontaniously, but say...when I put the camera down the "shake" will fire it, so it seems spontanious.

Since its a known issue, I apologize to Sherry on that one!

-- Charles (cbarcellona@telocity.com), May 24, 2002.

My M6 behaves perfectly, but my M3 has a problem akin to the one Charles has described. With the shutter tensioned and the flash at full power, it will sometimes not fire when I release the shutter, but will fire up to 15 seconds later. Suggesions?

-- Dick Baznik (reb10@po.cwru.edu), May 24, 2002.