Ok. I forgot turn on Ext. flash! Now the situation is different.
Remaining in Manual Focus M Mode LCD shows live preview of A Mode
exposure: the camera fixes 1/30 sec (but after halfpress of shutter
release it's getting always 1/50 - amazing), the aperture is your
choice.
I'm not understanding why you are choosing to shoot with flash this way.
First of all, I think the autofocus is so accurate that I wonder why you would choose manual focus? With the Flexible Spot Autofocus, you can focus exactly where you want extremely accurately.
Secondly, Why would you use aperture priority? That chooses the aperature, but lets the camera choose a shutter speed, so the shutter speed is not in your control. Why wouldn't you want to use manual exposure, where you choose both the aperture and shutter speed?
In flash photography, the shutter speed has little effect on exposure, except for controlling ambient light and image ghosts. With long shutter speeds, you can get image ghosts with moving subjects caused by too much ambient light. Sometimes image ghosts are used creatively, but they are usually not wanted.
Flash exposure is primarily controlled by aperture and flash duration. The fash duration is controlled either automatically by the flash sensor, or manually by the power ratio setting.
That way having for example a typical combination for studio ISO
160, 1/250 and f 8.0 you see on LCD ISO 160, 1/30, f 8.0. It is
pretty good enough to preview with pilot lamps. Of course, changing
apertures changes the preview. If you get a problem with 1/16 and
want to have deep depth of field during focusing, increase ISO for
focusing only. It afects preview, too.
Another way is to go to S Mode. It automatically gives bigger
aperture and brighter preview.
The lens in the camera stays wide open only when autofocus
mechanism works after halfpress of shutter release and it always
brightens preview. Then comes back to your aperture setting not
waiting for release.
I'm not sure you fully understand the "bright" LCD display. When you enable flash (either internal or external) or use Framing Mode on the R1, the camera assumes the light is low and provides a brighter LCD display for framing, even with manual exposure. The brightness of the "bright" LCD display does not change with a change in the camera's ISO setting.
Here is the way it works: With flash (or Framing Mode on the R1) enabled, the lens aperture opens fully (even in manual), and the LCD brightness is further brightened (if necessary) by increasing the electronic gain to the LCD (this is essentially auto ISO for the LCD display only). When the shutter button is fully pressed, the camera's actual settings are used for making the exposure.
One thing to remember is that whenever the flash is enabled, the camera automatically defaults to the standard "flash white balance" unless you have chosen to use "manual flash white balance."
There are other uses for the "bright" LCD display. One trick I use on my F828 for time exposures is to enable flash with the hot shoe "on", but without using an external flash. This gives me the "bright" LCD display for use in framing. But, I must remember to disable the flash before the exposure. Otherwise, the camera will always take the exposure using "flash white balance", regardless of the chosen white balance setting.
A related tip for time exposures is how to do a manual white balance in low light. You can often achieve a manual white balance by temporarily raising the ISO speed while fully zooming in on the light that you want to be white. After the manual white balance has been acheived, set the ISO speed back again before taking the exposure.
Lynn
