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Re: [OM] TTL: not ready for prime time?

Subject: Re: [OM] TTL: not ready for prime time?
From: "Jim L'Hommedieu" <lamadoo@xxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 01:02:00 -0500
Sorry, I posted after 'bedtime'.  Let's try it this way:

> With my ol' OM 2, I was disappointed every single time
> with the T32 in TTL.  At first I thought it was
> because the silly shoe wasn't up to the job of holding
> the T32 vertically, for portraits.  (Duh!)
> 
> Now that I have the OM-4's  great meter and sturdy, 
>built-in shoe, I decided to try the T32 again.  At
> Christmas, it worked okay straight ahead in Normal
> Auto.  
> 
> I shot a black puppy on a
> white blanket.  The black puppy took up 4/5ths of the
> frame.  I knew that it would have been a "normal"
> scene to a center-weighted meter if I had relied on
> the available darkness.
> 
> I pointed the T32 straight up and fired a warning shot
> in Normal Auto to find out if there was enough light. 
> (EI 160, 8' ceiling.  I knew there was enough flash
> power but I like to be sure.  There's an expression
> that goes, "Once bitten, twice shy.")  Normal Auto
> blinked.  Enough light.  I set the camera to "Auto",
> shutter at 1/30th, as the manual states to be extra
> sure.  I turned off the T32, flipped the calculator
> panel and turned it back on.  
> 
> Once I had a ready light (for an extra 15 seconds), I
> fired.  In short, I can't think of anything I did
> wrong.  (This time!)
> 
> Every single frame (24 in all) is grossly
> underexposed.  (more than 3 stops)  There is no detail
> at all in the black- it's completely clear film base. 
> If you're thinking that the scene was high key and the
> white blanket is probably "correctly exposed" as
> neutral grey, it's not.  Even the white bits are pale.
> 
> I don't know what TTL was 'thinking' but it wasn't
> reading *my* scene.
> 
> Is it possible for an OM 4 to yield **perfect** 
> exposures on slide film in available light using 
> manual spot, 
> manual center-weighted,
> and center-weighted Auto, yet be totally out
> of adjustment for TTL?  

> Others have related war
> stories about TTL.  Is -4 stops typical for this setup?
>
> (For newbies, TTL wasn't fooled by the black dog 
> which took up 4/5ths of the scene.  That would have
> given overexposure, not under.)
> 
> I could have used Normal Auto, but I 
> suspected that it would give me a neutral
> grey rendering of the white wall (which was
> 4 feet behind my
> subject), and a washed-out dog.
> 
> Are the Metz flashes better at doing TTL or am I still stuck because
> it still uses the cells in the body?  Do I need
> to give up on bounce flash with my OM-4 / T32 / 100mm
> lens combination?  
> 
> I also tried a short TTL cord with the T32 off camera, aimed up
> but all of the exposures are uniformly and grossly
> underexposed.
> 
> Do you ladies and gentlemen have ideas?
> 
> Thanks for reading.
> 
> Lama




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