GFX 100II won't trigger flash when HC lens attached

[P. Chong]

I previously stated that I had no issues with the 100 II and HC lenses....to my horror, I was going through my files this morning, when I noticed that I had neglected to shoot the 100 II with the HC lenses. My apologies. So I took out my trusty HC 120 and mounted it on the H Adapter G to the 100 II, and lo and behold! The flash refused to trigger. Not when the shutter is set to lens nor to body. And once or twice, it did trigger, but the frame was totally black. I switched back to the 50S II...all was good. I even managed to shoot a short project with it. So it appears that the 100 II does not work with HC lenses. I also switched the 100 II to the TS 110, and it worked fine. I have 1.2 on the adapter and 2.0 on the camera.

So Dana, it is quite possibly a Fuji problem.

Thanks, Steve. I am thinking there as issue with my 100II body. We’ll see what Fuji says.

 

[BFD]

I previously stated that I had no issues with the 100 II and HC lenses....to my horror, I was going through my files this morning, when I noticed that I had neglected to shoot the 100 II with the HC lenses. My apoloigies. So I took out my trusty HC 120 and mounted it on the H Adapter G to the 100 II, and lo and behold! The flash refused to trigger. Not when the shutter is set to lens nor to body. And once or twice, it did trigger, but the frame was totally black. I switched back to the 50S II...all was good. I even managed to shoot a short project with it. So it appears that the 100 II does not work with HC lenses. I also switched the 100 II to the TS 110, and it worked fine. I have 1.2 on the adapter and 2.0 on the camera.

So Dana, it is quite possibly a Fuji problem.

Thanks for the update. If you can send an email to the email earlier on on this thread to Fuji Support, that would be awesome. At this point, I figure they think I just don't know what I am doing but, like you, my older 100s body works fine. They received my 100II last Wednesday and, according to their documentation, are supposed to give me a diagnosis within 5 business days so hopefully I hear something this week.

 

[BFD]

I previously stated that I had no issues with the 100 II and HC lenses....to my horror, I was going through my files this morning, when I noticed that I had neglected to shoot the 100 II with the HC lenses. My apologies. So I took out my trusty HC 120 and mounted it on the H Adapter G to the 100 II, and lo and behold! The flash refused to trigger. Not when the shutter is set to lens nor to body. And once or twice, it did trigger, but the frame was totally black. I switched back to the 50S II...all was good. I even managed to shoot a short project with it. So it appears that the 100 II does not work with HC lenses. I also switched the 100 II to the TS 110, and it worked fine. I have 1.2 on the adapter and 2.0 on the camera.

So Dana, it is quite possibly a Fuji problem.

I just received an email from Fuji asking me to try my setup with the viewfinder removed from my camera. I had to let them know that they actually have my camera—LOL. But maybe try that and see if it solves the issue.

 

[P. Chong]

I just received an email from Fuji asking me to try my setup with the viewfinder removed from my camera. I had to let them know that they actually have my camera—LOL. But maybe try that and see if it solves the issue.

I spoke to my Fuji rep, and he is not aware of the issue. But said he will float it back to HQ. I will try without viewfinder later today.

 

[P. Chong]

Tried without the evf. Doesn’t fire either. Hopefully there will be a firmware update to fix this.

 

[drevil]

I remember a similar issue with the 50s or 100, it was an canon 580 flash and the flash wouldnt fire, when i was looking through the viewfinder, when the camera camera took a picture while the live view was on the LCD, the flash fire.

IF i recall correctly

 

[P. Chong]

Canon EX 580 works fine with my 50S II, 100S. But not with 100 II.

I remember a similar issue with the 50s or 100, it was an canon 580 flash and the flash wouldnt fire, when i was looking through the viewfinder, when the camera camera took a picture while the live view was on the LCD, the flash fire.

IF i recall correctly

 

[Detlef_g]

Hi Dana,

thanks for reporting. I have the same issue with my GFX100 II

Firmware Body: 2.0
HC- Adapter: 1.2

I tested with my HC-80, Mount adapter setting is set to Lens Shutter --> my Flash ( Siros L over RFS2.2) is not firing. everything works with all my GFX lens
If i switched to my GFX100 the HC-80 works in all settings.

 

[getscreen]

Have you tried tinkering with the flash settings on the camera itself? Sometimes, there might be a specific setting that needs adjusting to get everything synced up properly. Also, maybe checking for any firmware updates for either the camera or the adapter could potentially resolve the issue.

 

[Digitalcameraman]

The bug that would not allow flash triggers like Profoto and Godox was happening with the devices that would slide onto hotshoe. The Firmware 1.2 corrected that and Profoto and Godox both confirmed and our customers saw this solved immediately.

I know you have covered your bases, but did you compare your setting to this article our tech guru Brad Kaye published when the GFX II first started shipping?

Tech Tip: Enabling Hot Shoe / Sync Port for Flash Photography on your GFX-series Camera - Capture Integration

When mounting up a Fujifilm TTL compatible flash or radio transmitter, the GFX automatically recognizes the unit and will send a signal to them, but if you’re using any non-TTL or generic radio transmitter, the camera will not see it without first enabling the hot shoe & sync port in the menu...

www.captureintegration.com

Could be a firmware issue. I know that for the 100II the adapter needs to be on firmware 1.2 and that 2.0 for the 100II body just came out a few days ago.

 

[BFD]

If you guys could report the issue to [email protected] that would be awesome so they can know this is an actual problem and not my incompetence.

That said, Fuji said there is nothing wrong with my 100II and it works fine there. I have a feeling they did not test properly to my specs even though I gave them a very good explanation of what needs to happen. I am mostly competent when it comes to using strobes so I am pretty sure that it is the camera. So sure that I went ahead and bought another 100II today and it has the same issue and I find that constantly changing settings will get it to fire once in a while but then it will stop after a couple frames without touching any settings. Again, testing with several different strobes, different remotes, hard wiring to the front sync terminal and also as before everything works spot on with my 100s. The 100II that Fuji had will be back here tomorrow and I will test it again just to see if they changed some hidden/magic setting.

Today, I did discover that there is indeed a timing issue with the 100II at the very least and HC lenses. On a couple frames, I could see the strobe had fired and had a very slight orange glow on it—this was with a B1X on a quarter power. To me, that meant the strobe fired too early and the image caught the very last of the glow. So to increase the flash duration on the B1X, I started cranking it up 1 stop at a time. Finally on full power I got a white flash on the image (albeit not the full power of the flash). To me, this means the HC lens and the 100II in conjunction are firing the sync port too soon. Trying to explain this and getting Fuji to test it would be futile at best, I think.

 

[BFD]

The bug that would not allow flash triggers like Profoto and Godox was happening with the devices that would slide onto hotshoe. The Firmware 1.2 corrected that and Profoto and Godox both confirmed and our customers saw this solved immediately.

I know you have covered your bases, but did you compare your setting to this article our tech guru Brad Kaye published when the GFX II first started shipping?

Tech Tip: Enabling Hot Shoe / Sync Port for Flash Photography on your GFX-series Camera - Capture Integration

When mounting up a Fujifilm TTL compatible flash or radio transmitter, the GFX automatically recognizes the unit and will send a signal to them, but if you’re using any non-TTL or generic radio transmitter, the camera will not see it without first enabling the hot shoe & sync port in the menu...

www.captureintegration.com

Yes, already checked that and also when you attach to the hot shoe, the camera automatically enables the hot shoe.

 

[Digitalcameraman]

Great documentation Dana. I know you are very technical too.
Let me see if I can get this over to someone at Fuji.

If you guys could report the issue to [email protected] that would be awesome so they can know this is an actual problem and not my incompetence.

That said, Fuji said there is nothing wrong with my 100II and it works fine there. I have a feeling they did not test properly to my specs even though I gave them a very good explanation of what needs to happen. I am mostly competent when it comes to using strobes so I am pretty sure that it is the camera. So sure that I went ahead and bought another 100II today and it has the same issue and I find that constantly changing settings will get it to fire once in a while but then it will stop after a couple frames without touching any settings. Again, testing with several different strobes, different remotes, hard wiring to the front sync terminal and also as before everything works spot on with my 100s. The 100II that Fuji had will be back here tomorrow and I will test it again just to see if they changed some hidden/magic setting.

Today, I did discover that there is indeed a timing issue with the 100II at the very least and HC lenses. On a couple frames, I could see the strobe had fired and had a very slight orange glow on it—this was with a B1X on a quarter power. To me, that meant the strobe fired too early and the image caught the very last of the glow. So to increase the flash duration on the B1X, I started cranking it up 1 stop at a time. Finally on full power I got a white flash on the image (albeit not the full power of the flash). To me, this means the HC lens and the 100II in conjunction are firing the sync port too soon. Trying to explain this and getting Fuji to test it would be futile at best, I think.

 

[Detlef_g]

hi,

i found a way to fire a flash ( HC-80 plus leaf shutter) but also a way to stop firing the flash with leaf shutter

see below:

switch on the camera, select the leaf shutter ( button on the adapter) , take some picture, flash is not firing i get an underexposed picture.
hit the view button on the camera to view the picture, switch to the next view screen.

take new picture and now the flash is working with the leaf shutter.
Switch of the camera, switch on, flash is not working with the leaf shutter.
video with the effect:

HiDrive

hidrive.ionos.com

!!! addition information:

Flash is working but picture is black, seems to be an timing issue.

 

[BFD]

Hi, I watched the video. I saw the flash is firing. But you did not show any frames with the effect of the flash.

 

[Detlef_g]

addition to the Video. It flash, but the resulting picture is black, seem to be a timing issue.

 

[BFD]

Yes, very strange. I think the sync is triggering the strobe before the leaf shutter. If you use a shitty flash with a long duration, it will show up partially. I have actually encountered about half a dozen issues with this setup. This camera is not ready to be on a professional set.

 

[Whisp3r]

Yes, very strange. I think the sync is triggering the strobe before the leaf shutter. If you use a shitty flash with a long duration, it will show up partially. I have actually encountered about half a dozen issues with this setup. This camera is not ready to be on a professional set.

I hear ya. I switched back to the GFX100 body a couple of weeks ago (I kept it as a backup camera) because of a number of annoyances marring smooth operation of the V2 body, the major one being an EVF issue when using Broncolor strobes. But there were other little issues, such as the strange colour artifacts when applying one of Fuji's own film simulation modes (Pro Neg Hi) in Lightroom, or the (PDAF related?) artifacts that show up when shooting against the sun at a specific angle. I personally think the Fuji system lacks the maturity of systems like Canon or Nikon. I used the Canon system for about fifteen years, such a robust camera in my experience. Been using Fuji MF since its introduction in 2017, it served me well (and it still does) but support for professionals is non-existent here in Belgium to the point that I had to get duplicates of my most used lenses just in case something went wrong. The output remains great of course

 

[bagnon]

There is a new firmware (2.10) for GFX 100II, but unfortunately it does not solve this issue....

FUJIFILM GFX100 II | Firmware | FUJIFILM X Series & GFX – Global

Download the latest firmware for FUJIFILM GFX100 II from here.

fujifilm-x.com

 

[BFD]

There is a new firmware (2.10) for GFX 100II, but unfortunately it does not solve this issue....

FUJIFILM GFX100 II | Firmware | FUJIFILM X Series & GFX – Global

Download the latest firmware for FUJIFILM GFX100 II from here.

fujifilm-x.com

Thanks for the heads up. It will take many more complaints before they work on a fix—right now they probably think just a couple people don't know how to use a flash correctly. So this camera sits in a box for now which kills me because I like everything else about it.