Lon Williamson wrote:
a) The SP manual states that leaving the flash on, in _any_ mode, keeps the SP's meter perpetually on. Yet, with both my SPs and both my 280's, switching the flash off causes the camera to lose flash synch (125 will no longer display as the shutter speed, and the lightning bolt is gone).
With the flash on, the camera is turned on. If you're in auto-shutter mode, when the flash turns on, the shutter speed will be set to 1/125th. If you're in any manual flash speed slower than 125, the speed will stay there. If you're at faster than 125, it'll get set to 125 once again.
Why? The only way I can get it back is to turn the SPs off, then back on, or take the flash out off TTL then switch back to TTL. This is awkward, to say the
When the flash is on, the camera assumes that it is the only, or primary, source of light. So it doesn't meter ambient light.
OTF flash metering should work regardless.
least. This happens in aperature priority, manual, or shutter priority modes. Up til now, I've kept the flash on 100% of the time when I know it's the only way to get shots.
In manual mode, the shutter should stay at the setting you set it at with the flash on, so long as that setting is 1/125th or slower. It does on my Super Program. Not sure what it does in shutter priority with the flash set for TTL metering. I know that the P30T I have at least will set the aperture on the lens automatically if you attach an AF280T and set it for one of the non-TTL auto modes.
b) The SP manual hints that the 125X setting on the mode dial is to be used ONLY for older, 2 conductor flashes. Is the SP's OTF meter turned off on this setting? If not, will using 125X keep the meter off til the shutter button is pressed? I tested this, several times, and sometimes the flash fired full power taking a long time to recycle, and sometimes it recycled quickly. These tests were conducted at a white wall from about 4 feet at f4. I would think I should have never seen full discharge from the flash at that aperature and distance.
OTF metering works on my SP in the 125X position. Ambient metering does not though, and that's the real difference. Since the camera has no way of knowing that an older flash is attached and turned on, they recommend using that setting so that you don't accidently set the shutter speed to faster than the flash sync speed. You CAN set the camera manually to any shutter speed below 1/125th, and still have the flash fire properly.
-Mat
