Digital TTL sensor

Hi all,

I am using a Canon S45 with a YS90-DX. I have just bought a digital TTL sensor which seems to work great (on land). I was wondering, now that I have TTL capability, what is the best mode to shoot in? I realise that manual will give me the most control, but with TTL is there any upside to shooting in aperature or shutter priority modes?

Any advice would be most appreciated

Anthony

Hi Anthony,

If you are talking about the Matthias controller, then that controls the Flash - it has nothing to do with the camera control (P, A, or M). The TTL controller sets the flash power.

Shooting in P, A, or S, the camera uses its own light meter to set the exposure. This is pretty much independant of the flash. If you put the camera in S or P I can pretty much guarentee (sp?) you that it will choose the lowest F-stop, resulting in poor photos.

So I recommend shooting in A or M mode on the camera and TTL with the strobe.

HTH

James Wiseman

Thanks for your advice (and yes I'm using Matthias' controller)

I think I follow you, but...

1) In A mode, I have no guarantee that I will catch a fast moving subject and 2) I can't really controll the amount of ambient light in the shot.

Correct me if I'm wrong..

So I guess M is the best option. I'm kinda new to this and I'm still getting my head around the whole TTL thing, so could you give me some advice on how I would approach taking a shot in M mode?

I know in M the camera doesn't fire a pre-flash. So how does the TTL sensor put out the right amount of light?

And finally when I semi depress the shutter in M, I get an exposure reading on the screen. What should I be aiming for?

Sorry for all the q's but I'm a bit confused.

Thanks

I've been playing around with my camera a bit and I've found that in M mode, I can only control the strobe output by adjusting the flash power in the camera's menu, and this gives me 3 power levels only. If this is the case I may as well shoot manual with my fibre optic trigger kit and not bother with the TTL?

You were spot on when you said the camera would always select the lowest F-stop in shutter mode, but why does this result in lower quality photos if the strobe output automatically compensates via the TTL controller?

As far as I know in manual mode there is no TTL in the Canon S series (and most of the others cameras as well) also in the internal flash. so of course the

Matthias' controller will not give you anything in that mode.

low fstops results in very shallow depth of field.

Cheers

James