Third Party Flash

I haven't found any offical word, maybe I can get some info here. Are

there any third party flash units that work with the 7D, and I don't

mean fire at 100% power all the time as working. A flash that

functions like a 5600hs or 3600hs, under TTL control.

Sigma.

 

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=352099&is=REG&addedTroughType=search

Dave, have you noticed any of the "consistency" issues people report on the KM flashes with this one? I'm making do with a Vivitar 285hv right now.

The flash system of the Dynax/Maxxum system was so good, the top of the line. Even in cheaper bodies like the dynax 5 you had HSS and wireless, something the other Big Guys didn't offer unless you payed big bucks.

 

However with the introduction of the KM DSLR, KM managed to seriously screw this up. I'm really disappointed. Great flash units like the 5400HS and the Xi series just don't work properly with the 7D, while they do fine with the 7. Even the top-of-the-line 5600HS(D) has problems, apparently. Is a DSLR's flash circuit THAT MUCH more complicated, or they want to earn their profit on flash units, or what?

 

[Venting over, thanks.]

Sunpak 40PZ

The Promaster FTD 7000M for Minolta works with both my Maxxum film bodies, sits higher off the camera than Minolta's own, even works as a remote off-camera unit--and can be had for about $199. ?Should work with the 7D, as well.

"Is a DSLR's flash circuit THAT MUCH more complicated, or they want to earn their profit on flash units, or what?"

 

It's definitely different. In the film cameras, normal TTL flash is measured during the exposure by a flash meter that reads the reflected light off of the film. When there is enough light, the flash is quenched. Early Minolta AF cameras used CW metering, the 7 and 9 have the option of using a 4 segment meter. The main issue with the CW metering was if the subject was small in relation to the CW meter pattern (could lead to overexposure). With the 4-seg meter the the main problem was when the subject wasn't located in the primary metering segment (usually due to focus and recompose).

 

For some reason digital cameras can't use "off-the-sensor" metering analogous to the off-the film metering -- possibly because of the more specular nature of the reflections?? So they have to use a different method.

 

In the 7, Minolta introduced ADI which uses the focus distance. This should be very accurate. On my 7 it seems to work very well and avoids the focus & recompose problems. However, it has significant limitations. The lens and flash both must be "D" types, the flash must be mounted on the camera (there is a way to defeat this, but the flash still must be at the film plane distance from the subject, the flash must be direct with no diffusers or filters that absorb light. So ADI has limited utility.

 

The other method used is preflash metering. In this case the camera triggers the flash for a short burst before raising the camera mirror. The reflected light is read through the normal 14-segment metering, which then tells the flash the power to set. This is similar to the way the HSS flash worked on the HSS capable cameras ^ 5400HSS flash. Since that worked so well on the film cameras, I wondered why there seems to be a problem on the 7D (and why you can't use a 5400HSS). The only difference that I can think of is that preflash for HSS metering was only used as a low guide number fill flash. If it wasn't too accurate, it probably wouldn't be noticed, particularly if the photog was using negative film.

 

The 9 and 7 could also use preflash metering at normal speeds, but in that case preflash was used along with off-the-film metering only as an adjustment.

 

From what I have read, the 7D seems to use ADI pretty well. Some (all??) camera/flashes needed to be re-calibrated. I wonder if some of the problems have to do with the use of 3rd party "D" lenses. There were reports of some Sigma D-lenses giving very strange DOF readings on the film 7 which would indicate something wasn't working right with how they implemented "D". There did seem to be a problem when the 7D was set to ADI and a non D lens was used. It seemed as though the camera wasn't automatically switching to a non-ADI mode (the 7 film camera switches automatically).

 

Other companies have had problems also with flash metering on their DSLRs. Personnaly I wish that KM would make an "auto-flash adapter/sensor" that could be used between the camera and the flash to turn a 5600 or a 5400 into an auto flash (like the old vivitar 283 for example). I also agree that they need to figure out how to make flash work as well as it did on the film cameras.

 

Tom

RE:

Peter McM. , jul 02, 2005; 09:41 a.m.

The Promaster FTD 7000M for Minolta works with both my Maxxum film bodies, sits higher off the camera than Minolta's own, even works as a remote off-camera unit--and can be had for about $199. ?Should work with the 7D, as well.

 

 

Reply:

 

The problem is, flashes that work fine on the Maxxum film cameras don't work in automatic TTL mode with the 7D, as the film versions use OTF (off the film) TTL metering, but the 7d, being digital has no FILM for OTF metering. ANY flash that works on a film maxxum SHOULD work on a 7d, but they don't. I thank you for your input, but I'm looking for 7d users who have tried 3rd party units on their cameras and had a good experience with it (ie they worked in the way expected, not just blasting at 100% power everytime.)

Thanks Tom for your detailed answer, i understand it a bit better now. Sorry Joseph for hijacking your thread a bit.

Joseph--thanks for your insight. I have yet to venture into digital photography on any level. I figured if a lot of the same Maxxum lenses were compatible, the flash might just be, as well.