Panasonic DMC-FZ50 External Flash

Is any using the new Panasonic DMC-FZ50 ?? I got mine about a month
ago. I sold my DMC-FZ30 to get it. Well, the jury is still out on
which I like the best. The DMC-FZ50 is billed as being able to use
Roll film Camera's external TTL flash attachments. When I connect my
Metz using the minolta TTL adaptor the Flash fires about 2 seconds
before the Camera makes the exposure. Is any one else having such a
problem?? if so can you tell me how it can be fixed??

 

In camera flashes can fire weakly one or more times before the
final flash that is used to actually take the picture. Some of
these are used to determine what is needed for a good exposure, and
these should occur very close to the main, final flash, probably
within a few tens of milliseconds. Pre-flashes that occur one or
two seconds before the final flash are probably due to the camera
being configured to reduce "red-eye". Make sure that any
anti-redeye settings are disabled. The FZ50 may still generate
exposure preflashes, and if you can't eliminate them, the Metz will
"seem" to fire at the right time, but it will actually fire
prematurely. To solve this you can buy a small "smart" module that
sits between the FZ50 and the Metz, which can be configured to
ignore preflashes, and will only trigger the Metz when the FZ50's
shutter opens. Metz and some other flash manufacturers also sell
flash units that don't need to be electrically connected to the
camera, but incorporates similar "smart" circuitry that detects and
also ignores preflashes. B&H sells several of these, including a
couple from Metz, one being a very small Mecablitz 28 CS-2 digital.

 

The FZ-50 does have a TTL external flash function, but they do not claim it
to be compatible with any 35 mm film camera's system. The Minolta TTL
adaptor is definitely not compatible with the FZ-50. According to the Metz
website they are preparing an SCA adaptor for the FZ-50, type SCA 3202 M6
that will make some flash models compatible with the FZ-50. Meanwhile you
might be able to insulate the communication contacts in the hot shoe with
Scotch tape and use the centre contact only without TTL. I use their 36 C2
model without TTL, works just fine.

 

I am using some older non-ttl flashed with my fz-30 and found one
(Kalimar Dual head) was consistently underexposing by a stop. I got a
Sunpack with a dedicated Nikon mount (which has caused no trouble), and
this exposed as expected.
gr