Metz Handle Mount

[mblanton]

Would an old Metz handle mount flash work with my 10D if I triggered it with a radio slave???

My idea is to mount it to a light stand, attach a small soft box, quantum battery, and radio slave. I want to set the flash to full power, and meter it inside from 10 feet away. Then I will tie 10 feet of rope to it and whenever I shoot outside I can pull the rope and know the apeture will be correct. Example if the flash meters f5.6 inside at iso 100 then outside I would shoot at f8.0 at iso 100.

What do you think?

Mike

[DaveG]

I guess that that should work. But I'm not sure if I'd do it that way. First off it looks like you are using it for fill flash so the use of a soft box isn't needed. Aim the flash head directly at the subjects. The Metz in this context is the fill light and the mainlight is what will control light harshness/softness not the fill, even if the fill is a small point source.

The Metz will have an Automatic setting. So you could select ISO 100, then the f5.6 Automatic setting on the flash and shoot. The use of Automatic will give you a lot more flexibility in the field. For many years I used this technique to fill flash at weddings, and it works just fine.

With a digital camera you should check the review to make sure that the Metz's f5.6 is REALLY f5.6, and make appropriate adjustments. The one stop difference between your main light (which I presume to be the ambient outside light) and the fill works out to be a 3:1 lighting ratio by the way.

When you use a fill light you don't need it to be a distance from the camera. As a matter of fact the fill MUST be within 20 degrees of the camera position. Having the flash RIGHT ON the camera is fine. The idea with fill is getting the same light to BOTH sides of the subject's face (assuming that it's a portrait). This reduces contrast so the capture can hold the highlight and shadow. My point is that you don't need to have your Metz set up a distance from the camera. If it was the MAIN light then you would, but not the fill. A nice conventional synch cord is then all you'll need.