FL-36....ugh :(

ljmac said:

Then it works fine. I've found the flash exposures to be far more
consistent on auto anyway, so you don't seem to lose anything by
doing this (except all the extra bulk and weight of other pro grade
flashes!).

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I often see the same thing using the FL50 in Auto vs. TTL, which works just as easy with all the other dedication in either mode.

It also stops people who tend to close their eyes from showing up in all the images where they are present with their eyes closed due to the TTL pre-flash which, while short, is there and does effect some people. The last wedding I did, the brides eyes were closed the very first two shots I tried with my FL50 set to TTL. I changed to non-TTL auto and the rest of the evening never had one issue with her eyes being closed.

And they take up a lot of your power budget too, so avoiding them is highly advisible with the FL-36.

BTW, do other brands have non-TTL auto?

Ditto - FL-36 and Eneloops together are the perfect team.

Lawman

acwalbur said:

Get out of ISO 100. ISO 200 minimum, maybe ISO 400.

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absolutely right - the difference is amazing!

acwalbur said:

Drag that shutter. One the E-510 with IS this should be cake. I
even do it on the old E-500. Set your flash to SLOW2 and your
shutter to 1/30, let some ambient light in with your flash, so it
doesn't work so hard.

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the IS is even not necessary for that, because the flash light "freezes" the motion. Even for party shots you can go down to 1/10 with a camera without IS (E-330, E-4x0 e.g.) - people in motion will blur a little bit, but ususally this looks very nice.

Lawman

ljmac said:

And they take up a lot of your power budget too, so avoiding them is
highly advisible with the FL-36.

BTW, do other brands have non-TTL auto?

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Yes, Nikon's upper tier SB800 has it, but the SB600 does not.

Back when I used a Canon DSLR, nether of their two bigger units, the 550EX or 420EX, did, but I believe their replacements...at least the upper tier 580EX, does.

Any others I am not so sure of.

Bootstrap said:

Do NOT work in the FL-36. There's a scientific reason why and I'm
not sure what it is but they lose power very, very fast.

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I only have one set of rechargeable CRV's. They don't work at all in my FL-36 and I think the reason is that fuly charged, these CRV3's put out 4.2 volts and the FL-36 shuts down to prevent damage,

Now there are "good" CRV3's that regulate the output voltage of the rechargeable Li-Ion s to the 2.8-3.2 volts expected by an FL-36, but I suspect the regulation cuts down on the maximum current. Might be good enough to run a camera that uses AA's, but not a flash?

Anyway, I have the same response for my FL-36. A mild ugh. I didn't think I would be grousing about cycle times, but it's slow. It also seems to work better in manual mode on my Pentax as far as exposure than it does in auto mode on my E510. Gotta read the manual some more.

Are you shooting at ISO100 and small aperture?

If the flash has to shoot at full power, it will consume lots of power, so it will eat battery quickly and recharge slowly.

So consider using bigger sensitivity and aperture, if you lens allows it.

But slow recharging speed really is the achilles heel of FL36.

I bought an FL 36 and was disappointed in the recharge time. I sold it for about what I purchased it for, and just bought an FL 50 that I should get in this next week or 2.