Fill in flash on FZ20

[Al Brown]

hello all,

iam using a small Metz BC6 external flash for my FZ20. Exposes beautifully on auto. however, when i use it in daylight for fill-in especially in strong sunlight, the EVF becomes over exposed. the picture taken with fill in comes out over exposed as well. so i switched it off but the EVF remains very bright. it also disallows you to adjust the aperture, speed or ISO. it appears that external flash when mounted in either on or off mode compels the FZ20 to default to f2.8 1/60 sec at ISO100. Solution to this is to physically unclip the flash as the FZ20 can sense a "parasite" on it. once done, the EVF returns to normal and picture taking will be okay. i hear that going into 'Manual' is one way of overcoming the restriction. anyone with similar experiences?

the built in flash however allows you to adjust the speed, aperture and ISO when in use. this gives greater flexibility over the external flashes. for pictures less than 15ft in distance, this built in performs admirably.

appreciate comments to this matter. thanks!

[genece]

That is not the way it works but I never used a metz flash
Go here and click on the FZ10 link and then read about flashes.


http://www.cs.mtu.edu/~shene/DigiCam/

[Al Brown]

thank you for your comments and tip.

[Bill Markwick]

hello all,
iam using a small Metz BC6 external flash for my FZ20. Exposes beautifully on auto. however, when i use it in daylight for fill-in especially in strong sunlight, the EVF becomes over exposed. ....
Solution to this is to physically unclip the flash as the FZ20 can sense a "parasite" on it. .....


If you look under the right-hand rail of the FZ20 hotshoe, you'll see a tiny pushbutton and a leaf spring. When you insert a flash or a hotshoe adapter, this button sets the camera to external-flash mode, which adds a fourth page to the menu. It has PRESET and MANUAL choices. This is explained on pages 81 and 82 of the instruction manual. But to make a long story short, in PRESET the aperture is forced to f2.8 and the ISO to 100. In MANUAL, the choice is yours (I refer to manual-flash on menu page 4, not manual exposure control).

The button also restricts the shutter to between 1/60 and 1/250, but only in the P mode. In A, S, and M modes, you can set what you want.

I like to use Aperture priority: I do test shots and set the aperture to suit the combination of fill and ambient light. I can also set my 285HV flash over a four-stop range. That usually does it, although sometimes I use Manual mode (this time I mean manual exposure mode) for a little more control.

Reminds me of a nice feature of digital cameras: they're their own flash meter.

Isn't English grand? There are three different meanings of "manual" up there. :)
If I've made it confusing, here's the procedure:

1. With the flash in the hotshoe, press Menu and go to page 4. Set MANUAL flash.
2. Use A, S, or M modes if the P mode causes problems.

Regards,
Bill

[Al Brown]

hi Bill,

thanks for your valuable tips. perhaps i did not explore the camera enough or really understood what the "manual" was talking about.

will experiment with yours and genece's tips this weekend.

cheers!

Al