Flash with Olympus C7070

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Hi all,

Yesterday I joined a group to have birthday lunch with one of the members, I
was elected to take the photos, I decided to use my digital Olympus C-7070.
Knowing that there would be a lot of available light in the restaurant I
elected to use "Flash on" rather than risk the meter being fooled by the
available light if I had the flash set on auto. To say that I was
disappointed with the results is an understatement. Sure, the flash fired
for all the shots, but there was a general lack of illumination.

The camera manual states that the flash settings are Auto, flash on/fill
flash, flash off, slow flash etc. If I want "Flash on" does this mean I
have to compensate but "turning up the wick"? I can set the camera to give
me up to 2 stops "overexposure" with the flash.

I would be most interested in any comments from others who have used flash
in this way be it with Olympus or any other brand.

Alan

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

"Ken Weitzel" <kweitzel@shaw.ca> wrote in message
news:HpKZe.556793$s54.115590@pd7tw2no...
>
>
> Alan McGrath wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Yesterday I joined a group to have birthday lunch with one of the
>> members, I was elected to take the photos, I decided to use my digital
>> Olympus C-7070. Knowing that there would be a lot of available light in
>> the restaurant I elected to use "Flash on" rather than risk the meter
>> being fooled by the available light if I had the flash set on auto. To
>> say that I was disappointed with the results is an understatement.
>> Sure, the flash fired for all the shots, but there was a general lack of
>> illumination.
>>
>> The camera manual states that the flash settings are Auto, flash on/fill
>> flash, flash off, slow flash etc. If I want "Flash on" does this mean I
>> have to compensate but "turning up the wick"? I can set the camera to
>> give me up to 2 stops "overexposure" with the flash.
>>
>> I would be most interested in any comments from others who have used
>> flash in this way be it with Olympus or any other brand.
>>
>> Alan
>
> Hi Alan...
>
> Sorry to hear your shots were disappointing - been there, done that.
>
> I *think* what happens is your camera - instead of reading ambient light
> and setting itself appropriately, says to itself... hey, it's darkish in
> here, but that's OK, because at the moment of exposure it'll be nice
> and bright. So, it sets itself for that eventuality.
>
> What goes really, really wrong is that in a party-ish situation the flash
> doesn't do much worthwhile at all, and you end up with what you (we) did.
>
>
> My workarounds so far are two: If ambient is at all close enough for the
> wide shots, I make do with what I have, and forget the flash.
>
> The second for the wide shots is to use the a/s/m mode, force a bit of
> overexposure, and take many, many varied shots at +.3, +1, +2, etc.
> Hey, it's digital, there's no cost at all
>
> Hope this is helpful, but hope even more that the pro's among us have
> better ideas
>
> Take care.
>
> Ken
>
Hi Ken,

Many thanks for your comments. I can see where you are coming from when
you say to forget about the flash and just use ambient. Sure I could try
that but the reason I prefer flash is to eliminate any possibility of camera
shake.

Thanks again

Alan