E20 Flash Problems

[Gary Eickmeier]

Hi Gary,

A theory on the two dark photographs. The shot of the 2 girls
sitting on the piano has a very hard reflection that looks like it
blew right back at the camera. Could it have fooled the exposure
system? The other dark shot has a lot of white... girls shirt and
the teddy bear. Again, is this possibly an auto metering error
based on too much white being metered. That doesn't explain why
the other shot of the one girl is, if anything, over exposed.

In any event it sounds like you may have an exposure problem that
is more involved than just flash exposures. I'd agree with the
suggestion that you might have a case for returning it and getting
another.

I don't shoot an awful lot with the built in flash, but on those
few occasions I have I've been generally happy with the exposure
(ESP) and white balance (set to Auto).

Yes, I think so. I will call 17th St tomorrow and see what can be done. I hate to be a whiner, but I MUST examine another sample. If another one does the same, then it is a serious design fault and I wait for the D60 or something.

I really do love the whole design of this little camera. I do hope I can get a good one. I haven't read about any of these problems in this group, so mine must be unusual. Will keep y'all posted.

Gary Eickmeier

 

[sebMarc]

I know it is not an excuse, maybe a workaround, but most of the small exposure inconsistencies you are encountering could be corrected with photoshop.

My E20 does produce some inconsistent results too, although i don't think they are as bad as your samples.

Sincerely hope you'll sort it out.

Seb.

Hi Gary,

A theory on the two dark photographs. The shot of the 2 girls
sitting on the piano has a very hard reflection that looks like it
blew right back at the camera. Could it have fooled the exposure
system? The other dark shot has a lot of white... girls shirt and
the teddy bear. Again, is this possibly an auto metering error
based on too much white being metered. That doesn't explain why
the other shot of the one girl is, if anything, over exposed.

In any event it sounds like you may have an exposure problem that
is more involved than just flash exposures. I'd agree with the
suggestion that you might have a case for returning it and getting
another.

I don't shoot an awful lot with the built in flash, but on those
few occasions I have I've been generally happy with the exposure
(ESP) and white balance (set to Auto).

Yes, I think so. I will call 17th St tomorrow and see what can be
done. I hate to be a whiner, but I MUST examine another sample. If
another one does the same, then it is a serious design fault and I
wait for the D60 or something.

I really do love the whole design of this little camera. I do hope
I can get a good one. I haven't read about any of these problems in
this group, so mine must be unusual. Will keep y'all posted.

Gary Eickmeier

 

[Gary Eickmeier]

I know it is not an excuse, maybe a workaround, but most of the
small exposure inconsistencies you are encountering could be
corrected with photoshop.

My E20 does produce some inconsistent results too, although i don't
think they are as bad as your samples.

Sincerely hope you'll sort it out.

Thanks. The (young woman) at Oly tech support told me to take the CF and SM cards out, take the batteries out, and let it sit for 24 hours and return to its native settings. If that doesn't sort something out, then send it back to the store.

Might work.

Gary Eickmeier

 

[Glenn Anderson]

Is there any chance that with the dark images that the flash had not fully charged?

If the flash was only 75% charged, and you took a shot that required more than 75% of the flash capacity, there wouldn't be enough light and thus a dark exposure.

At times, I have had underexposed flash shots in a sequence of shots of my daughter where everything is basically the same (aperature, distance, scene, etc). These darker shots have always been, when I took a quick shot (to capture an expression of example) right after another shot. Because of the short time between shots, my quess is that the flash had not managed to fully charge up, and thus didn't have even power for what was needed.

 

[filmmaker]

Hi Gary,

I decided to embark on my own investigation, and contacted the olympus technician about my dark photos that i have taken. I sent him a collection of about 10 photos that i had porblems with and complained about the built in flash and exposure.

Today he responded, stating that all the photographs that i had sent him were taken with subjects behind a white background(this is very true, they were). That is the reason of the pictures being too dark. He stated that the meter compensated for the white background and that is why most of my subjects appeared underexposed.

I noticed your pictures where taken in a white back ground too.

But anyways, he stated that we need to compensate for this by adjusting the flash compensation.

Hope this help!

best

Ray

 

[Gary Eickmeier]

Hi Gary,

I decided to embark on my own investigation, and contacted the
olympus technician about my dark photos that i have taken. I sent
him a collection of about 10 photos that i had porblems with and
complained about the built in flash and exposure.

Today he responded, stating that all the photographs that i had
sent him were taken with subjects behind a white background(this is
very true, they were). That is the reason of the pictures being
too dark. He stated that the meter compensated for the white
background and that is why most of my subjects appeared
underexposed.

I noticed your pictures where taken in a white back ground too.

But anyways, he stated that we need to compensate for this by
adjusting the flash compensation.

No, the white background situation is not a common element in my bad pix, as you see with the kids at the piano and the girl with black background.

Nor do I think it is a not fully charged flash. That's one of the first things I checked, and the manual seems to say that the camera won't fire until the flash is fully charged - not sure about this one.

I am "rebooting" the camera for 24 hours with no cards or batteries in it, to see if what the tech said is true. Who knows.

Gary Eickmeier

 

[filmmaker]

Hi Gary,

Let me know what happens. There was someone else here who also mentioned the white background. I think he said something about that particular shot you just mentioned. As far as for the kids in the piano, there is a white flash reflection from the piano that might have fooled the exposure meter, and this is what the oly tech meant by this - white backgrounds that fool the exposure metering.

best

Hi Gary,

I decided to embark on my own investigation, and contacted the
olympus technician about my dark photos that i have taken. I sent
him a collection of about 10 photos that i had porblems with and
complained about the built in flash and exposure.

Today he responded, stating that all the photographs that i had
sent him were taken with subjects behind a white background(this is
very true, they were). That is the reason of the pictures being
too dark. He stated that the meter compensated for the white
background and that is why most of my subjects appeared
underexposed.

I noticed your pictures where taken in a white back ground too.

But anyways, he stated that we need to compensate for this by
adjusting the flash compensation.

No, the white background situation is not a common element in my
bad pix, as you see with the kids at the piano and the girl with
black background.

Nor do I think it is a not fully charged flash. That's one of the
first things I checked, and the manual seems to say that the camera
won't fire until the flash is fully charged - not sure about this
one.

I am "rebooting" the camera for 24 hours with no cards or batteries
in it, to see if what the tech said is true. Who knows.

Gary Eickmeier

 

[ME-GM]

I read the posts but haven't seen you reply if you tried spot or center-weight metering yet. Inconsistent exposures was something I faced too when I first got the camera. Try one of those metering mode above and built in flash as fill and post result. If your camera is not a defect, the above settings will yield much better and more consistent result. Personally, I don't think removing the battery and memory cards for 24 hours will resolve this issue. Funny thing about electronics is that either they work or they don't. Don't "monkey" around too much.

Here's another stab at the problem: try to focus on your subject (with metering mode mentioned above) on the part you want proper exposure and hold the shutter button half way down. Now you can recompose the zoom, scene but don't change yourself/subject position and take the picture. Like Brian mentioned: if you take two shots of the same thing and get different result, it's time for the camera to go back into the box for something else or different. Good luck.

I seem to be getting various exposure results with my new E20,
using the built-in flash. Some are fine, many are dark. I am
shooting ISO 80, Program mode, flash in Auto, subjects well within
15 feet. I can't find anything in the manual to give me a clue. Has
anyone experienced this?

Thanks,

Gary Eickmeier

 

[leohoward]

Take 4 photos using an 18% grey card with the onboard flash & spot metering, fill the frame as best you can with the card. You should get 4 fairly close images as far as exposure is concerned, if not, then I would say your camera has a funkydelic meter.

Cheers

Leo Howard