wonky flash power?

doidinho wrote in post #15372600
Conversely, if you are shooting in Manual at the lowest power setting and still have too much light, switch over to E-TTL. The pre-flash will suck up a bit of power and thereby reduce the intensity of the flash. The change will be small, but it might be just enough.

Yeah, but (last time I tried) the difference was not that small.
I'll give it a try when I have time…

René Damkot wrote in post #15375920
Yeah, but (last time I tried) the difference was not that small.
I'll give it a try when I have time…

I don't use my camera flash too often, but I am coming to the conclusion that I prefer to use manual flash over ETTL almost all of the time.

I would probably use an ND gel or a STO-FEN Omnibounce (if it didn't create too much fill) to reduce the flash output and keep things in manual rather than switching to ETTL.

It's good info to know nonetheless. I would be interested in knowing how much power is reduced/save on both the high and low ends by using ETTL vs manual.

Back in the days when flashguns only had manual mode and a less-than-massive choice of power settings (ie. ½ or full power), we used to cut the output by simply placing a white handkerchief over the flash head. You could always tell the true professional because he (and it almost invariably was a he) had a clean handkerchief . More layers = less light output.

Nowadays, those not slavishly chanting the Canon mantra have the option of Metz units which supply 1/256th manual power as standard. Loads of control then.