Even when casually greeting someone, Emmanuel's devastating sense of
humour shows :)
This guy's sure is not your average frenchie...
So if we leave the bracket aside (until someone provides us with a
good bracket solution) and we go with off-camera flash :
- cable length can be addressed by using coiled cables... but with
coiled cables the plugs disconnect more easily from the Rollei so I
use high-quality adhesive (i.e one that leaves no marks when removed)
to keep the plug in place
- growing a third hand might take too long; I will try tightening a
flash to my forearm with straps (Rollei-cyborg style) so that I keep
one hand free for focusing, and tell you if that works...
Fred
On May 5, 2006, at 9:40 AM, bigler@xxxxxxxx wrote:
Been looking for a good flash setup for my Rollei T for a while now, as I wanted to use flash on location. I haven't found the perfect solution, only trade-offs so I offer my story and hope to get some tips from the educated crowd here.
My experince is quite similar to Frédéric's (que je salue au passage, comme on disait à la radio Suisse Romande ;-)
I have fabricated my own flash bracket for left-hand with a home-made leather strap, and in my design I can reach the focusing knob since the handle is quite small in diameter and is located close enough to the knob. This kind of crude device was designed to support a small flash unit I was using with a 35 mm camera. Also in my version #2 of the design, the bracket attaces to a Rolleifix and not directly to the Rollei back (whihc is suppoed to be somlwhat fragile).
Eventually I acquired a METZ 45 but with the original Metz-supplied bracket tou cannot reach the Rollei-TLR focusing knob.
So eventuelly I stooped using any bracket at all ; I simply use a long synchro cable and I hold the Metz flash above the optical axis like stroboframe-equiped people do. The advantage of holding the flash source above the optical axis is thit it will cast shadows behind the head of people your are photographing ; with a side flash like my home-brew or like the Metz on its original bracket, you cast shadows on the side and this might be unaesthetic.
A direct front flash illumination is quite flat and not necessarily the best for an artistic portrait but people usually like it.
Three problems with the no-bracket option
- the cables have to be quite long, and are loose ; using the lens hood definitely helps preventing the cable to intrude in front of the taking lens ;
- cables being loose you are at risk of the plug to disconnect from the rollei, except if you find the original Rollei BLIKA plug that latches securely into the Rollei's synchro plug (regular PC plugs do are not latched inside the Rollei socket)
- you need three hands to do all the operations ;-) a large vest with pockets big enough to hold the flash definitely helps when you are not actually taking pictures ;-);-)
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