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X-T1 and auto flash

fotoism

Member
I am a long time Leica user and about to go on a month long trip to Asia. My daughter came up to me and said: "Dad, why don't you take my X-T1 instead of your M8?"

So here I am, a brand new X-T1 user trying to learn as quickly as possible a totally new camera. Following the user manual I was able to do most basic things but I am having difficulties setting up flash on the X-T1. Here are some details:

Flash: Nikon SB-28 set to auto, ISO 200, F/5.6
Lens: Fujinon 16mm F/1.4, set up in mount adapter setting as 16mm
X-T1: drive set to S, shutter speed 1/180, ISO 200, metering multi, compensation 0, focus S, sound and flash off set to off, shutter type mechanical only, flash mode forced flash. Lens aperture set to 5.6.

What happened is with these settings, the viewfinder and rear LCD become very dim (aperture closed down to 5.6) as I am indoors in a not so bright room. Flash goes off ok and the final exposure is ok. If I change the aperture to 1.4 the viewfinder becomes bright but the flash picture is also over exposed. OTOH if I set aperture to 16 the picture comes out dim, the viewfinder is also dim.

I then set the ISO to A but everything else unchanged: lens at 5.6, shutter at 1/180. Viewfinder and LCD light up a bit because the ISO is now auto-adjusted to ISO6400, flash goes off ok, but the result again is gross over exposure.

I also tried setting everything to A including the lens, the viewfinder looks ok now and the flash goes off okay, but the picture is still grossly over-exposed. It seems the flash is not talking to the camera, or vice-versa.

Bottom-line is if I use A mode on the flash and on the camera set ISO, shutter speed, and lens aperture to match the flash, I can get properly exposed picture but NOT a bright viewfinder/LCD display, which makes focusing and framing difficult. Does the viewfinder brightness change with lens aperture unless it is set to A? I always thought the viewfinder should remain bright and the lens aperture does not close down until the moment of actual exposure. Maybe there are some settings I missed in the menu system?

Thanks for any help.
 

ReeRay

Member
Menu>first spanner>screen set up> preview exposure> OFF. This disengages the WYSIWYG facility and keeps the screen "clear"

Don't forget to set it to ON when not using flash to re-engage the WYSIWYG.
 
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