Lighting tutorials

[Björn Carlén]

I did a test with my very old Osram BCS 32 Studio mounted on my E-M5 II. Suddenly the SB-800 syncs all the way up to full power.
My conclusion is that this confirms the theories of charlie and Asle, that preflashes from the Olympuses were the cause of the problem.
Does anyone have a better explanation?
As it seems, it's not possible to turn off the preflashes on those Olympus flashes.

[David H. Hartman]

Preflashes are the typical cause of this problem. The Nikon F5 and SB-800 have a mode called Auto Aperture that's Iike the old Auto Thyristor flash but the camera and flash communicate so you only set the aperture on the camera. Damned if that mode doesn't use a preflash. Anyway the preflash problem has been discussed many times on Flicker's Strobist.com group. The No.1 solution is a radio trigger system. The No. 2 solution is a speedlight like the LP180R (and many others) that can ignore the preflashes.

Dave who reminds you that Canon calls their flashes "Speedlites" because they are less filling.

[charlie]

I did a test with my very old Osram BCS 32 Studio mounted on my E-M5 II. Suddenly the SB-800 syncs all the way up to full power.
My conclusion is that this confirms the theories of charlie and Asle, that preflashes from the Olympuses were the cause of the problem.
Does anyone have a better explanation?
As it seems, it's not possible to turn off the preflashes on those Olympus flashes.

So you can use your old Osram flash to trigger your SB-800's then, problem solved. Search no more for explanations. If preflashes are occuring SU-4 mode will not operate properly.

I'd be real surprised if you could not disable the preflashes, the manual for the E-M5 II shows that the flash can be set to manual mode and there is absolutely no reason for pre flashes if the flash & camera are both set to manual modes.

[John G]

Hi Bjorn
I have followed your thread, it seems like you,ve got to a place that is satisfactory for your flash settings.
Good luck with Stage two of your plans.

[Björn Carlén]

So you can use your old Osram flash to trigger your SB-800's then, problem solved. Search no more for explanations. If preflashes are occuring SU-4 mode will not operate properly.

I'd be real surprised if you could not disable the preflashes, the manual for the E-M5 II shows that the flash can be set to manual mode and there is absolutely no reason for pre flashes if the flash & camera are both set to manual modes.

I've tried every possible setting in the flash menu, especially all in manual. Nothing seems to turn the preflashes off.

[Björn Carlén]

Hi Bjorn
I have followed your thread, it seems like you,ve got to a place that is satisfactory for your flash settings.
Good luck with Stage two of your plans.

Yes, the radio triggers are on their way. And thank you!

[Björn Carlén]

Hm, and this was supposed to be a thread about lighting tutorials. And look where it ended up. Sorry about that! I guess Olympus is to blame.

[charlie]

I've tried every possible setting in the flash menu, especially all in manual. Nothing seems to turn the preflashes off.

Interesting, what is the model number of the flash if you don't mind me asking?

[Björn Carlén]

FL-LM3 on the E-M5/II.
On the E-M10 it's a built-in one. Popup-.

[Björn Carlén]

I found it out at last.
Setting the camera to RC mode 'off' obviously turns the preflashes off. The speedlight is set to SU-4, and suddenly it syncs all the way up to 1/1!
I can turn the on-camera flash output power down to 1/64. Not shure if that's enough not to impact the lighting. Of course it's not optimal.
Sorry about all the fuss. I should have thought of this much earlier.

[David H. Hartman]

Björn,

I'm glad you found a solution to the preflash problem.

Dave