09-28-2013, 10:39 PM
At the times of the flashguns, each camera manufacturer had one of them, I guess. And each press photographer of a small local newspaper had one attached to the big body he pulled out of his extremely big photobag. But with an additional lead battery, like the Metz 60 CT had, this was heavy stuff. Overpriced and highly powerful. But those were the ages when 800 ASA was really super-high speed, and 1600 ASA exotic, expensive and experimental.
Nowadays... well, I never liked flash, except in studio conditions with setup light. Colours were difficult, in smoky environment worse than without, we have faster lenses, more sensitive sensors, better focus condtions (sometimes AF sees in the night) and vibration reduction. I had some bad experiences with photographers pointing a flash into my face and I don't see me doing this. Flash is always hard to calculate in advance. I'm referring to the reflections and the proportions of over- and underexposed bits in the picture.
Since 30 years I prefer available light. I tried flashgun, but found it far too attracting attention and disturbing people. Excellent for newspaper work, reliable and enough light, but for the rest of photography?
Nowadays... well, I never liked flash, except in studio conditions with setup light. Colours were difficult, in smoky environment worse than without, we have faster lenses, more sensitive sensors, better focus condtions (sometimes AF sees in the night) and vibration reduction. I had some bad experiences with photographers pointing a flash into my face and I don't see me doing this. Flash is always hard to calculate in advance. I'm referring to the reflections and the proportions of over- and underexposed bits in the picture.
Since 30 years I prefer available light. I tried flashgun, but found it far too attracting attention and disturbing people. Excellent for newspaper work, reliable and enough light, but for the rest of photography?