Marc,
I'm the guy who wrote the note about replacing my FE-2 with an FA because I
prefer to run the camera off of the motor drive batteries. For that reason,
I'm a big fan of the FA as a second body over the FE-2. (Ideally, I'd have
an F5 with an F100 as a second body, but that will have to wait ;-).
That said, I would have to say that if the most important feature in making
your decision on which camera to buy is the ability to use TTL flash in
Aperture Priority Mode (APM), then the FE-2 is the ONLY way to go. The FE-2
does this normally, without any modifications.
However, the FE-2 puts no "brakes" on shutter speed in APM, if the aperture
chosen with a high speed film causes the needle to go beyond 1/250 there is
a potential sync problem. I say "potential," because I've never risked just
going ahead an shooting when the needle pointed to 1/500 or above. I
instead would stop down until the needle dropped to 1/250 or below. I don't
think there is any safety device built into the FE-2 to keep the shutter
speed in sync when a speedlight is attached. So, more often than not, I
used the camera in manual mode when using a speedlight.
The FA, on the other hand is not really usable in any mode BUT "M" with a
speedlight attached. When a flash is turned on, the shutter speed
automatically jumps to 1/250 (regardless of where the shutter speed dial is
set) in any mode but "M," and the meter is switched off in ALL modes. If
you want to use the meter, you must temporarily switch off the flash (at
least you don't have to remove it from the shoe :-{), and then meter, and
then turn the flash back on. So, you can see that using the FA's meter is
somewhat cumbersome with a speedlight attached. Strange but true, you can
leave the FA in any of the auto modes (P, S, or A) with your speedlight
turned on, and know that your shutter will lock on 1/250 at whatever
aperture you set on the lens. Sort of semi-automatic. This can be handy
with outdoor fill flash using the "Sunny 16" rule, instead of metering at
all.
Hope this helps,
Jon
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Jon Cunningham
Freelance Photographer
Aurora, IL
Online Portfolio: http://pwp.starnetinc.com/jonc29
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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