Canon made a flash that automatically figures out the best direction to point...

See https://www.theverge.c​om …70ex-ai-auto-flash-bounce.

I guess since we have cars that can drive themselves, we can have a flash that can point themselves. When will the photographer no longer be necessary?

I was thinking of the self driving car analogy before even clicking the thread link.

I drive a manual transmission, and actually enjoy it.

When I put the car in reverse, I actually twist my spine to look behind me.

I regularly freak people out with the speed and accuracy I parallel park.

I'm pretty sure I can still point a flash where I want it.

Now if you will excuse me, I have to run some meddlesome kids out of my yard!!!

OK Mr. Wilson......

I went to a wedding a week ago. Two photographers. Their flashes aimed helter skelter as they moved about to different locations and angles to the B&G, with no attention to re-aiming to best illuminate the scene. They could have used a smart flash that reaimed itself!

John from PA wrote in post #18572487
See https://www.theverge.c​om …70ex-ai-auto-flash-bounce.

I guess since we have cars that can drive themselves, we can have a flash that can point themselves. When will the photographer no longer be necessary?

Honestly I feel this is silly. I mean really, bouncing a flash is as basic as it gets when learning to use flash but oh well, guess some people may want one so to each its own.

LGabrielPhoto wrote in post #18572737
Honestly I feel this is silly. I mean really, bouncing a flash is as basic as it gets when learning to use flash but oh well, guess some people may want one so to each its own.

Put yourself in the shoes of the working pro, who is constantly moving about getting better angles of different subjects. Make the room the irregular shape of the interior of a Catholic church, and not merely a rectangular box of a wedding reception venue. It helps to have a self-aiming flash, else the pro has to glance around every time they have moved or aimed in a different direction, to assess (guess) where the flash needs to be aimed for that shot. In my last post I somewhat made fun of the helter skelter flash aiming, but for them to re-aim the flash for each of their movements about the church would have impeded the speed of shooting, too.

Wilt wrote in post #18572742
Put yourself in the shoes of the working pro, who is constantly moving about getting better angles of different subjects. Make the room the irregular shape of the interior of a Catholic church, and not merely a rectangular box of a wedding reception venue. It helps to have a self-aiming flash, else the pro has to glance around every time they have moved or aimed in a different direction, to assess (guess) where the flash needs to be aimed for that shot. In my last post I somewhat made fun of the helter skelter flash aiming, but for them to re-aim the flash for each of their movements about the church would have impeded the speed of shooting, too.

The problem with that scenario is that since you're not only changing the orientation but also your subject's and your own position, you won't just need the flash to re-orient itself in the same way, you'll need to re-adjust its positioning anyway, then press again the memory button, etc, or use the full auto mode, which has its own set of problem and isn't that fast.
Frankly for me I don't think that I would be gaining that much time with it, in any mode.

Wilt wrote in post #18572742
Put yourself in the shoes of the working pro, who is constantly moving about getting better angles of different subjects. Make the room the irregular shape of the interior of a Catholic church, and not merely a rectangular box of a wedding reception venue. It helps to have a self-aiming flash, else the pro has to glance around every time they have moved or aimed in a different direction, to assess (guess) where the flash needs to be aimed for that shot. In my last post I somewhat made fun of the helter skelter flash aiming, but for them to re-aim the flash for each of their movements about the church would have impeded the speed of shooting, too.

I am working pro and still do not see the point of it to simply bounce a flash. In any case I work with off camera flash normally and softboxes.
Like I said, I am sure someone will buy it..but for me, is not something I would ever use for my work.
Regards

MayaTlab wrote in post #18572749
The problem with that scenario is that since you're not only changing the orientation but also your subject's and your own position, you won't just need the flash to re-orient itself in the same way, you'll need to re-adjust its positioning anyway, then press again the memory button, etc, or use the full auto mode, which has its own set of problem and isn't that fast.
Frankly for me I don't think that I would be gaining that much time with it, in any mode.

But the article claims (although it doesn't try to characterize any weakness in the capability)
"a flash that can automatically determine the “best” spot to bounce the light off of the ceiling." And the description is "When you double tap the shutter button on your camera, the flash points out at the subject, calculates the distance, then points itself at the ceiling and does the same. Right after that, the flash reorients itself one last time into what it “thinks” is the best direction to achieve the perfect bounce light for your subject." It does not sound like it matters that the subject orientation to the room is changed, or that camera angle has changed.

I will admit that I am oversimplifying the complexity, as an irregular shaped room (or even darkened vs. lightcolored panels) cannot be identified with a single flash 'at the ceiling'.

The article is wrong. Canon has posted on CPS a set of articles explaining in detail how the speedlite's automatisms function and it isn't quite as rosy .

Basically you have two modes. One is semi auto, whereby the user sets the bounce angle, memorise it by pressing a button, and then the flash can replicate that angle even when the camera has been moved from one orientation to the next either automatically, by double tapping the shutter button, or single tapping it (you get to choose that in the menu).
The problem with that approach, as far as I'm concerned, is that I rarely change the orientation without either moving myself or the subject in one way or another, in which case the memorised bounce angle may not be optimal anymore - meaning that I'll be adjusting it manually anyway.
I can see that function as being useful in some situations, or to other photographers more frequently, but is it really worth the cost ? Is it really, in very concrete terms, going to make a workflow faster ? As far as I'm concerned, it's a rather clear no, and I'm not sure for the majority of photographers.

The second mode is full auto. Press the blue AI button, or on the 6DII or M50 the DOF preview button (not double tapping the shutter), and the flash automatically does what is described in the Verge's article. As far as I'm concerned I'll be faster doing it manually but I can see that feature as being pretty great for a lot of people. The issue that I have with it is that it's only really nicely implemented on the latest bodies (6DII and M50, no need to press the blue button, and therefore no need to remove your hands from the camera), comes with a lot of caveats (such as the fact that it will fix the zoom setting at 50mm in bounce mode), and may give mixed results (remains to be seen how intelligent it really is).

http://learn.usa.canon​.com …ounce.shtml?cat​egoryId=12

It's nice to see Canon innovating in this area, but I fear that it's going to be more like DP raw files than DPAF if you see what I mean. I see that as, basically, a sub-optimal use of development resources.

Yep, thinking about getting this just to test the effectiveness. NEEDS a white ceiling though.
OCF all the way - almost Always!
https://youtu.be/chLtZ​5Fress

Thanks for the added detail on this new flash feature, MayaTlab, it clears things up considerably.

I agree about the limited utility as apparently implemented currently, but as a start of something that could amount to much more in the future, one can give Canon kudos for trying to innovate flash technology. (I, for one, am a skeptic about Canon and flash technology, however, since they can't even get photosensor flash automation to expose correctly).

As for the 'stuck at 50mm' when using ceiling bounce, some past testing about ceiling bounce was posted many years ago on POTN. The flash coverage angle actually results in LITTLE BENEFIT, in terms of its effect on light brightness at subject position! And that was true even with high ceilings (rather than homes at 8' or hotels at 10-12')

I too would like to see what Canon will make of it in the future. That said I'm afraid that it might have come a little underbaked, won't find tremendous traction, and then Canon may wrongfully conclude that the concept, not the execution, is to blame.

As far as zoom setting is concerned, personally it's at shorter distances (for example on nearby side walls) that I found it the most useful, to modulate the size of the bounced source.

It would not be the first time that new technology gets yawned at, and then decades later everyone has it!

Olympus launched their high speed focal plane flash (F-280) in the mid-1980s and the world yawned because of the loss of distance due to the changed light emission from the flash.
Now every dSLR in the world has HSS, which is essentially the same thing, and the studio strobe guys are tripping over themselves to add HSS! (I still yawn, the same as in 1985 or whenever when the F-280 was launched!)