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Contax TLA 360 Flash to Contax N1 or Contax N1D

G

Guest

For the last month, when I turn on my camera, with the TLA 360 flash on, or vice versa, turn on my 360 flash with my camera on, I get a very loud clicking. Like the unit is syncing up with the lens size. After about 8 clicks, everthing works great. Very annoying. Any ideas? Is it just my TLA 360 fritzing out, or has anybody else experienced this problem.

Thanks,

michael.
 
Michael,
I just bought a TLA 360 Flash for my two Contax G2 cameras and will tell you if I have any problems. I will follow any comments that you get on this.
Harbert
 
Michael,
I bought on eBay for $325. Previously got prices at Adorama $465-439, B&H $465-399, Sunset $380, TriState $380 and Delta Int. $376. Highest prices are new USA and lower I think are new grey market.
Harbert
 
dear michael:

as (bad) luck will have it, i too faced the same problem with the tla 360. mine started clicking even when the flash was not attached to my n1 or nx. it seemed to do this when it was set at, say 85mm or so. i turned it in to the shop, which forwarded to contax (in japan) for repair. it will take 5 weeks to get it back in hong kong. c'est la vie (with contax's negligible customer service).

jhs
 
I have found that Contax in the UK offer pretty good service and help.

John=20
 
Thanks for your comment. My last round of flash shots also had some exposure problems on both my ND and N1. Perhaps it is related?

>
 
I have been trying to figure out how to use bounce flash (TLA 360) with N1 indoors effectively photographing in close range (6-12 feet). My usual practice is to dial it to aperture priority, set it to the desired f-stop with automatic 1/60 sec shutter speed. This seems to make more sense to me as this would help me capture more ambient light as opposed to the X mode where 1/250 sec will be set automatically. Since I would like to bounce the flash off the ceiling, I would also add 1/3 stop of exposure compensation.

My problem stems from the spot light which produces a yellowish effect on all my pictures. On the other hand if I use direct flash with TTL the yellowish effect disappears. This puzzles me as I don't know whether I need to increase the magnitude of flash output in order to get rid of the yellow tone in my indoor pictures.

Thanks in advance for everybody's expert opinoin.

Ken
 
Ken, this is a common problem of "mixed lighting" whereby the colour temperature of the spot light (3200K tungsten I presume) is different to the colour temperature of the flash (5500K daylight).

You could put a blue gel over the spot light to try and make it's colour temperature become similar to the flash, or you could put a yellow/orange gel over the flash and use tungsten balanced film. Either way, the phenomenon you observe is normal, and can only be solved by creating a uniform colour temperature for all the light sources in the image. Another method is to simply turn the spot light off, and use the flash as the main light source.
 
Thanks Craig, but what I don't quite understand is the fact that direct flash would totally eliminate the yellow tone. But of course the harsh direct lighting is undesirable.

Perhaps I didn't explain well enough. The "spot light" I described were merely ambient lights present in the room, not something artifically installed to create any special effect. In other words, there are more than one spot light and it would then become difficult and pointless to put a blue gel over them.

Your other suggested option is also difficult for me because I tend to shoot under different color temperatures using the same film, and tungsten balanced film would not give me the flexibility going outdoors.

I wonder if inserting a filter on top of the lens would actually help balance the color temperatures. And if so, which one should I get? But again, given the tremendous sizes of the N lenses and the different varieties, filters would cost a fortune and that's why I would be interested in a less expensive solution.
 
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