What is the best electronic flash for Leica R7

-- Jack Neil Swikckard (jnswickard@attbi.com), May 18, 2002

Answers

The Metz 32 Z2 is a compact and powerful flash, you move the head for bouce flash and it is not that expensive(about $120), I use it with my R6.2 and have great result.

-- Mitchell Li (mitchli@pacbell.net), May 18, 2002.

Any Metz flash with SCA capability will function well with the R7 (using the SCA 351 adaptor). Of the current-production models, I agree the 32Z2 is the best buy because it doesn't have a bunch of extra features the R7 can't use. And the 32Z2 can accept the SCA 3501/3502 adaptor for the R8/M6TTL/M7. Earlier units can't.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), May 18, 2002.

I used to own a Metz 32Z-2 but traded it in for a 40MZ-3i because I found I was getting shadows under the eyes, nose and chin of portraits taken with bounce flash. The 40 is a big, bulky unit (when attached to my Minox 35 it looks absolutely ridiculous!) but it works very well.

The 40 has a "secondary reflector", which can be turned off if not required, for eliminating shadows under the eyes, etc. when using bounce flash. There are two ND filters provided, for attaching to the secondary reflector, and I found it necessary to use the darker of the two in order to reduce the amount of fill-in light to a useful level.

For bounce flash with vertically oriented shots it's better to use the flash off camera, to avoid shadows to the side of the subject due to the secondary reflector. You can use, for example, a Nikon SC-17 cord to maintain the TTL features of your R7 while using the flash off camera. The SC-17 has a tripod screw mount at the flash end, which is handy for placing the flash on a tripod so you don't need 3 hands.

-- Ray Moth (ray_moth@yahoo.com), May 19, 2002.