josephs@ttidcb.UUCP (Bill Josephs) (01/10/85)
As an answer to my question posted last year re: Nikon synchro or
fill flash, the following idea seems to work for me (isn't it great to
be able to answer your own questions!):
The problem is that one has only three variables to play with for
fill flash -- aperture, shutter speed and amount of light produced by
the flash. Furthermore, on both my FA and FG (and I assume that the
same holds true for the FE2 since I can't imagine Nikon producing and
maintaining two incompatible systems), turning on the flash turns off
the normal meter, sets the sync speed and turns on the cell in the
film chamber floor. So, any procedure counting on normal metering
during flash would not work, but the following does:
1. Set the ISO reading to one stop under exposure (or use the
exposure compensation -- same thing). Chose another value
if you desire other than one stop "under fill".
2. Meter either with aperture preferred (forcing a speed of
1/500th) or manual and a fixed 1/500th.
3. Turn on the flash, disabling the normal meter and forcing
the meter to 1/250th (or whatever the sync speed is).
4. Since you've changed the ISO (or compensation scale), the
flash will now "fill" at one stop under exposure. However,
you set your aperture at 1/500th and you're shooting at
1/250th so everything works as planned for the main sun-
light.
I've tried this system (and prayed that things didn't change while
*ucking around with all this stuff). Seems to work. Incidentally,
things are a little more difficult if either you want other than an
exact stop difference or else you have a non-settable sync speed (such
as 1/90th for the FG).
Bill Josephs
TTI