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highest sync speed (1/125 sec.). Also as light levels increase, to the point of over
exposure by the brighter ambient light, the lens aperture will get increasingly smaller.
With the camera in Av, Tv and M modes, the camera meter will insist on a full and
proper ambient light exposure in addition to your flash exposure. It’s the same thing as
night flash mode in some other cameras. The background will be properly exposed by
the ambient light exposure and the flash will insure that the subject in the foreground
is properly exposed by the flash. However, if the light is dim, the shutter speed will get
very slow, often too slow to hand hold the camera. If that happens you can simply turn
the camera back to P mode which will raise the shutter to 1/60 second, but this will
usually create dark, underexposed backgrounds. A slow shutter speed with the camera
mounted on a tripod is often the best solution. Also, the Elan II/IIe has custom function
# 9 to keep the shutter speed at 1/125 sec. in Av mode if you want that.
I find that when using flash, setting the camera to manual mode is usually easier to
keep everything in control. Since the flash exposure is being determined automatically
anyway, having the camera on manual really doesn’t slow much of anything down.
Also, remember, that with flash the aperture effects both ambient lighting and flash
lighting, but the shutter speed only effects ambient lighting. This is because the flash
pulse is much faster than the shutter.
5.5 Auto Fill Flash Reduction
The Elan II/IIe automatically provides negative Flash Exposure Compensation (FEC)
when shooting in bright light. If using flash with light levels above 10EV (equal to
f/5.6 @ 1/30 seconds) the camera assumes you want a normal ambient light exposure
with fill flash to brighten the nearby subject, so it reduces the normal flash output.
This effect fades in as the brightness of the ambient lighting increases above EV10.
The maximum of -1.5 stops of FEC is applied with TTL/A-TTL metering and up to
2 stops with E-TTL. This auto FEC happens in all camera modes and is designed to
make your fill flash pictures more natural looking. Most people like the effect but many
photographers want even more reduction for their fill flash pictures. This can be easily
done with the Elan II/IIE by means of the FEC control on the camera body. This FEC
will be in addition to any auto FEC the camera decides on. Some EOS cameras have a
custom function to eliminate this Auto Fill Flash Reduction, but the Elan II/IIe does
not.
5.6 Other Flash Options
Other Flash Options: The Elan II/IIe does not have a flash PC connector to use with
studio lights and other manual flash units, but you can use a generic hot shoe to
PC adapter. Nikon’s AS-15 is a good quality one, but there are lower cost versions as
well. With a manual or studio flash you will need a flash meter to get consistent flash
exposure. Published guide numbers can’t always be trusted.
The Elan II/IIe can also use auto flash units like the venerable Vivitar 283/285 or
Sunpak 383. This is a way to get a more powerful flash without breaking the bank to
do it. There are several big limitations however. The meter is in the flash unit and it
will not take into account the lens’s field of view. This can give inaccurate exposures.
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