Does anyone know if the TTL circuitry on the Nikon SB 28-DX flash is compatible with the M6 TTL?

-- Ralph Barker (rbarker@pacbell.net), December 08, 2001

Answers

Absolutely not! One Leica-User tried it and reported the flash got hot and the camera's batteries quickly drained.

-- John Collier (jbcollier@powersurfr.com), December 08, 2001.

but i have seen a photographer who used a nikon spiral cable with his handheld sf20 on a leica m6ttl. he claimed that this was a current nikon cable and to have full ttl. is that true?

-- stefan randlkofer (geesbert@yahoo.com), December 09, 2001.

The chord is the SC-17. I did a very unscientific test on color neg with the SC-17 and the SF-20, and it appears that the flash exposure is non-linear as compared to on camera TTL flash exposures.

-- Steve Wiley (wiley@accesshub.net), December 09, 2001.

Steve - Could you explain further, please? The SC-17 is essentially just a four-conductor extension cord, the pins of which appear to align with the contacts on the camera hot shoe and the SF20, and there is no measured resistance between the pins on the cord indicating other electronics in the hot-shoe blocks. Thus, I'm curious about why it apparently didn't work as expected.

-- Ralph Barker (rbarker@pacbell.net), December 09, 2001.

what is a non-linear flash exposure?

if you could be able to use the sf20 off the camera with full ttl control, you would probably pretty soon run out of flash power, as the light fall-off due to the angle between the lens and the flash would be rather big.

-- stefan randlkofer (geesbert@yahoo.com), December 09, 2001.

Leica, Nikon, Contax and Pentax all use similar hot shoe contact locations. The contacts DO NOT have similar functions and the flashes ARE NOT compatibile on other systems. However you can use the cords to connnect a TTL flash to a Leica camera. There is no "circuitry" in the cords. I have used the Nikon SC-17 TTL cord and the Contax 100 TLA cord. They both work well and maintain full TTL flash function. I presently use the Pentax cord and adapters as it allows me to mount a finder on top of the camera adapter. This is very useful with my 21.

-- John Collier (jbcollier@powersurfr.com), December 09, 2001.

Stefan - I'm not following your logic in your comment, ". . . you would probably pretty soon run out of flash power, as the light fall-off due to the angle between the lens and the flash would be rather big. "

With the flash off the camera, the flash-to-subject distance is not necessarily changed - simply the angle, usually giving better lighting and shadow placement. And, except in the case of a fully polarized person ( ;-) ), the returning light is going to be reflected at all angles. Thus, the amount of light available from the flash, the exposure wouldn't change (unless the flash-to-subject distance was actually increased through the use of the cord).

-- Ralph Barker (rbarker@pacbell.net), December 09, 2001.

ralph, what i meant was that if you mount the sf20 on the camera, a guidenumber of 20 is sufficient enough for most purposes. but if you use that flash to illuminate an object from the side or even bounce the light against a surface like the ceiling, the reach of that flash will be very limited.

-- stefan randlkofer (geesbert@yahoo.com), December 09, 2001.