On 21/6/04 16:47, "edward bowman" wrote: > Hi, > Has anyone experience of using another make of TTL flash gun for the > Canon EOS 1Ds other than the official Canon ones? > Any advice would be gratefully received.
Hi Ed, I assume that you are referring to the totally useless canon ETTL flash system on the 1ds. Prior to switching to Canon from Nikon about 12 months ago I had been using their TTL system for 10 years or so without even thinking about it, off camera, on camera a little tweak here and there , ambient and flash combined etc etc. Canon are in the dark ages with the 1ds flash system. When I bought my 1ds I tried in vain to find an answer by looking at various sites and everyone had a "fix" but nothing seemed reliable enough to work with, I missed a shot today because of the unpredictable nature of the flash, standard manual 1/60th of a second dark barn ETTL flash and the exposure on the people subjects filling the frame was about 2 stops over, dial down 2 stops and it is about 2 stops under. Any way rant over. I spoke to some tec' guy who called me from Amsterdam (after my letter of complaint) who told me that they had decided no to put in "distance information" into the 1ds flash set up thus making the exposures very unreliable coupled with the fact that you have such a complicated metering set up (exposure taken from active focus point etc..) making any predictable use of it virtually impossible, if you get a succesful exposure on a subject you may just have had the focus spot over a neutral grey take a second exposure with the spot shifted slightly to a white or black and exposure nightmare. So, as I understand it the problem is the 1ds body. I know this for a fact a, because I went to a Canon road show recently to test the 1dMK2. And b, someone told me! The guy had only loaded the firmware the night before and did not know much about the flash set up. I put "MY" speed light on the body (the one that fails to work with the 1ds) and fired away, off camera TTL with transmitter, mixed lighting, back lit, inside slow shutter and blur, every shot was usable and with a little time I could have known that inside was a +1/3 situation and outside a - 1/3 etc. but after 5 minutes of shooting I could certainly have shot any job knowing I could rely on the flash. This was because the 1dMK2 has distance information amongst other things built into the body, so it is nothing to do with the flash it is the body that is the problem ( I look forward to being corrected because I might be able to use my flash and body properly then). I have also heard and read that this means that if you buy say for example a Metz flashgun the results are similar because the camera controls the flash output and the 1ds does not control it properly. I am waiting on a reply to another letter to canon pointing out the fact that for �500.00 I should be able to put the flash on the camera nd get predictable results after all I know where I am with my compact and Nikon have managed it for the last xx years? I work for National Press and every tiem I get a job where I know I need to use flash with moving subjects changing light etc I dread it, I know I cannot put the camera to my eye and take pictures withoiut constantly trying to juggle exposure, flash, metering, etc.. Sorry, it appears the rant was not over. Hope I am proved wrong really but after a year of trials and errors I am getting no where fast with the flash system and the 1ds. Stephen Email : steve(at)shepherdphoto.co.uk Web : http://www.shepherdphoto.co.uk =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
