I rarely do any flash photography but I bought the AF400T several years ago and used it for the first time recently, at a christening. It was mounted to the left of the camera with the flash attachment that replaces the wooden grip when the flash unit is used. All of the photographs were of people and I noticed that with every photograph in which a wall, drapery, or anything else is behind the subject, there is a sahdow outline of the subject's left side on the background, to the right (as you look at the photograph) of the subjectt. I presume that this is caused by the fact that the flash unit is mounted to the left of the lens, rather than being mounted directly above it, so that the light is coming in from camera left to right and casting a shadow of the subject's left side. I remember having this same problem with my Nikon SB24 flash, when I hand held it to the side of the camera. At the christening I thought I could alleviate the problem by making sure that the subject stood well away from the wall or other background but this didn't seem to help. Even when there was a wall ten or fifteen feet behind the subject, the shadow still appears on the wall. My question is: have other people experienced this problem when using flash with the P67/AF400T (or any other flash unit that is mounted on the left side of the camera) and, if so, is there anything that can be done about it? The shadow is very distracting and pretty much ruins the pictures. The AF400T is a big and heavy flash unit. I doubt that it would be possible to hand hold it directly above the lens. Any help by people more experienced with flash photography than I am would be appreciated.

-- Brian Ellis (beellis@gte.net), September 30, 1998

Answers

If it's possible, try to bounce the flash off the ceiling. I've done this with a Nikon F3 and the pix came out great. It works best with metering that can take the flash into consideration, such as the new Pentax 67 due out in January of 1999.

-- Roger Urban (roger_urban@yahoo.com), December 04, 1998.