External flash possibilities for DMC-FZ18

[dlambert]

My son's borrowing my FZ28 right now, but when he gets home with it, I'll try triggering the LP160 and let you know how it works out.

[dlambert]

Ok, here's what I found out -- the good news is that my FZ28 triggered the LP160 as an optical slave. The bad news is that the "digital" mode on the LP160 (which is supposed to handle pre-flashes), doesn't work with the FZ28 (the flash didn't fire at all), and the regular slave mode triggered on the pre-flash, so you'll have to disable red-eye reduction in order to use the LP160.

I attached a couple pictures of the flash being triggered by the FZ160 - the first one is at 1/64 power (the lowest setting), and the second is at 1/2 power. [edit - only one picture is showing up, but you get the idea]

If you've got any other questions, let me know.

[ed-dps]

Thanks David, that is good to know and it is a bummer.
On the FZ 18 the preflash is always on. Have not been able to eliminate it. Turning off red eye reduction makes no difference, it still has a preflash, even in manual exposure and focusing. My illustar 6800 always gets triggered by the preflash and thus is too early for the shutter. I doubt if disabling red-eye reduction your FZ28 will make the flash work properly

If I am wrong and there is a way to switch off the pre-flash that someone knows about, I'd be happy to hear it.

Too bad, seemed like a great flash, maybe I still go to th eshop and test it.

Thanks for all your effeort
regards
Ed

[ed-dps]

PS.
By the way David, I saw you are from the Buck-eye state. I used to live there and still have relatives there. Lived in Akron of all places ;-)

Oops slightly off topic

[dlambert]

Actually, Ed, I'm *from* Wisconsin -- I just happen to live in Ohio right right now (ok, for the last dozen years or so). ;-)

I'm really surprised you can't turn red-eye off -- what options do you have when you hit the flash options button (like in Portrait mode with the flash up)? I looked at the DPReview page for the FZ18, and it looked like it had a force-flash option w/o red-eye reduction. Does that still fire a pre-flash?

[ed-dps]

It has Autoflash with red eye reduction, auto flash without red-eye reduction, and it has forced flash with and without red-eye reduction.

Even without the red-eye reduction it still has a very short preflash that at first I had not noticed.

With red eye reduction, ther eis definitely yet another preflash, noticably b4 the main flash.

The oreflash is I take it to measure exposure, so I fiugured it would be off on complete manual mode, but nope, still there.

I may still give the LumoPro a test, maybe it works with me, and I have been thinking abt the Sunpak DSU 01 (a small slave unit), but I have seen mixed reviews on that one.

Ofcourse another cam is always a possibility (if I know for sure that has no preflash) but I kinda like the fz18 and would love it if i could keep using that.

Wisconsin? Well, then we still have something in common since I was born in a Dutch town, known for its cheese.
Regerds

[ed-dps]

OK tried that combination and it works pretty well. The Lumix can be set to ignore the preflash and that worked immediately with my Lumix.

There is a twist however: It works fine in Manual, P, A and S modes.
If you choose a portrait mode, then red-eye reduction is switched on and the Lumopro will not fire at all.
Now to avoid confusion: the camera has two types of 'preflash'
1 red eye reduction flash
2 regular preflash for establishing the exposure.

with the red eye reduction flash there is a clearly noticable delay between the red eye flash and the main flash. I presume the LP 160 cannot handle that
With the exposure preflash there is a very short (less easy to notice) delay between preflash and main flash and the LP160 handles that very well.

I have similar results from a Godox 18 flash (Cool Gadgets at the Right Price - Worldwide Free Shipping - DealExtreme). Works fine with an exposure preflash, but not with a red-eye preflash, eventhough that flash can be set to ignore 1, 2 or 3 preflashes.

Anyway, my problem is solved

[dlambert]

Excellent -- glad it worked out. BTW, have you seen any reviews for the FZ-100? It's got a flash hot-shoe, but it looks like opinions on the new sensor are sort of mixed. I've been keeping my FZ-28 for "lightweight" carrying, and it looks like I won't be trading it in on an FZ-100 just yet.

[ed-dps]

No have not seen that one, but no reason to buy it. Now I got the flashes working I'll stick to my FZ18