can someone give me some help with the F6 and SB400 flash please?

Started Oct 4, 2022 | Discussions thread
fpapp
fpapp Senior Member • Posts: 1,946
Re: can someone give me some help with the F6 and SB400 flash please?
2

jodad wrote:

I'm sorry all if this is in the wrong forum.

I just bought an f6 and an sb400 flash and have read the manual so many times but i just cant figure it out. all the different synch modes etc.

In the past with my simple Leica film, when I want to use flash, its because its a bit dark. In that case id just set to 1/50 (which is the Leica m synch speed) match aperture on lens and flash head and that's it. perfect exposure every time.

With the F6, my preference is to use P mode (the reason I bought it is for easy quick shooting and an almost fool proof metering system). If I'm in P mode which as I say is my preference, when its a bit dark, I guess it tries to balance the background and so lowers the shutter speed. This isn't what I want. How do I use the f6 with flash and not have to have slow shutter speeds? And when should I use slow synch or fast synch and rear or front synch. I don't understand them?

In P mode the only option for controlling the shutter speed is custom setting E2 which sets the slowest shutter speed the camera uses during flash photography. The fastest speed (and default is 1/60). If you want a faster shutter speed you will have to use manual or shutter priority mode. With the SB-400 the fastest shutter speed you can get is the camera's flash sync speed of 1/250 since the SB-400 doesn't support high speed sync.

In P mode (if E2 is set to 1/60) the camera will automatically select shutter speeds between 1/60 and 1/250 based on ambient lighting conditions when the SB-400 is used.

Anyone can give me an overview of how the flash works with this camera and my flash please? As I say, the manual doesn't help me...

and please don't suggest shooting manual and manual flash (sb400 doesn't have any buttons other than on/off ).

If you have the camera in manual exposure mode, the SB-400 will still be in TTL auto mode because as you say there are no controls on the unit.

P.S, I'm using matrix metering in P mode.

Since the SB-400 has no controls, if you want to use it as the main source of light, you have to set the camera metering mode to "spot". If the metering is set to "Matrix" or "Center Weighted" the flash will operate in "balanced fill flash" mode.

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