Hello Mike
> Thanks for the reply. Two questions related to it follow, if
> I may!
> When trying to photograph my daughter sitting on the sill of a large
> window (detailed in another posting to the same digest issue), I did
> use 3DMSBFF and matrix metering. With the camera in A priority and
> the flash switched off, the meter gave a shutter speed much faster
> than the fastest X-sync speed for my F70 (i.e. 1/125). If I
> remember, the speed it gave was 1/1000. When I switched the SB-26
> on (so as to flash-illuminate my daughter), the viewfinder LCD showed
> "Hi".
Basically the working aperture selected by you was too wide to be
able to expose properly for the background. Since you
are not exposing properly for the background, you are not doing
balanced fill flash - the flash is now the key light source on your
subject (your backlit daughter).
> but here it is: how can I do as
> you suggest because of the low X-sync of my F70? Or do I just shoot
> at the high speed -and- let the flash fire? Will this give proper
> results?
You have a few options
i) Keep matrix metering and select a smaller working aperture (at
least 3 stops smaller) - hopefully your subject will still be within
range. "Balanced fill flash" will be performed, since the background
will be correctly exposed for and the appropriate dose of flash given
to bring your subject up to a "natural" brightness level with respect
to the background (probably -0.3EV compensation if the
characteristics of the F90X and F5 are anything to go by).
ii) If you use the spot or CW meter off your daughter's face, you will be
doing "fill flash" since the fill compensation level will be with
respect to the light reading off the face only, and I'm sure you
won't have any trouble with "Hi"! You may have to select slow sync if
the required sync falls below 1/60 - otherwise the flash will be the
key light source again. Since the background is going to be grossly
overexposed, the exposure is not balanced although you are still
doing fill flash.
iii) Do what you were doing before! The flash is the key light source
and no fill is done (well maybe -0.3EV if the F70 has the same
characteristics as the F90X). If this is the case you may want to
dial in +0.3 compensation on the SB26 or on your F70 (flash
compensation mode) if you find the results a little underexposed.
This will bring the output from the 3D MSBFF mode to the same level
as standard TTL. Switching to standard TTL is a bad idea IMO since
preflashes are turned off and I find the results to be quite
inferior.
> Am I correct in saying spot fill flash and cw fill flash are not
> possible with my F70/SB-26 combo?
Stricly speaking, Spot and CW fill flash are only performed with MF
lenses. In this situation, the multi-sensor segments function as one
with a Centre bias.
When using AF lenses, the Spot and CW light meters are used to
determine the reference light level to calculate the fill
compensation. The 5 segment multi-sensor is still active and
the preflash is used to analyse the scene as with the matrix meter.
In this way you can still cope with off-centred subjects and still
have fill flash. The only difference is that the scene won't be
"balanced".
Hope this clears everything up for you.
Regards
Anthony Newland
Research Scientist
Fisher and Paykel Healthcare Ltd
PO Box 14-348
Panmure
Auckland
New Zealand
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Telephone: +64-9 574 0100 ext 8092
Facsimile: +64-9 574 0158
You can't change the world
But you can change the facts
When you change the facts
You change points of view
If you change points of view
You may change a vote
And when you change a vote
You may change the world
(M.L.Gore)
