Nikon Coolpix 5700 severe flash underexposure problem

All Things Mopar wrote in news:Xns9594EBA6B990EReplyToken@
216.196.97.135:

bob commented courteously ...

Bob, I'm sorry if I got pevish with you. I apologize. It's
just that so many people - mainly at Nikon - have basically
insulted my intelligence for so long I get short-termpered.

No appology necessary!


Is the E-mail in your header correct, Bob? I'll try E-
mailing you my pics.

You need to modify the email according to the instructions in the signature
line -- e.g. take out the letters "MAPS"


e.

I've looked at Vivitar's website also. And, I've re-perused
my meager manual. If I understand it right, the 728 is
*only* TTL-auto with a Nikon or Canon autofocus SLR. Not
even sure if they mean "DSLR", since it doesn't say so.

I do know that Nikon and Canon have different shoes, but since yours has
the letters Ni in the model name, we know yours is for Nikon. The spec
sheet mentions some older Nikon cameras, like the 4004. The 4004 was pretty
basic, so if it worked with that, it ought to work with the newer stuff too
-- it just won't support all the new features. But the 5xxx series cameras
don't support all the new features either, so that's not an issue.


In any event, as best I've been able to determine through
testing, as well as from both phone and E-mail with Nikon,
the 5700's normal daylight/available light auto exposure
system is completely disabled when it is in "speedlight"
mode.

It determines that by the setting in Set-Up, which I have
set to "Auto". Then, I set the built-in Speedlight to be in
in Fill Flash mode, so it will always fire. If I turn my
Vivitar "on", the 5700 fires that, else, it fires the
Speedlight. But, in neither case is the auto exposure system
operating. When I want to go back to daylight/available
light, I set the Speedlight to only fire when it needs to.

When you say "fill flash" that means "always on" with the little lighting
bolt showing, right? The term "fill flash" can be used with a different
meaning too, but I see in my CP manual they use "fill flash" and "always
on" to mean the same thing. I don't do a lot of flash photography, but when
I have, it's been really reliable. I get overexposure with really close
subjects, and I get underexposure sometimes when I try to bounce off a dark
wall and the flash runs out of power, but in general it works pretty well.

either broken or very poorly designed. I just don't have the
variability with either my old Fuji 4900 or my wife's little
Kodak 6330 under exactly the same conditions (I tested them
and reported same to Nikon but those people are incredibly
arrogant!).

(Yes, they are {arrogant}). The 4900 has a one pin ISO shoe, so when you
use the flash with it, the only thing it can do is fire the flash. The
flash aparently knows it's not on a Nikon, so it uses the other sensor
behind the red spot on the front to know when to shut down. (It has to have
a sensor, because it has a test button/indicator -- without a sensor, it
couldn't know when to light up the indicator. The main purpose of the red
light though, is to light up a scene with infrared light that the slrs can
focus on). Since the 4900 only has one pin, it cannot control the exposure,
other than by selecting an aperature before you release the shutter.


Richard Tomkins in his reply to me on Oct. 28 in this thread
confirmed that he, too, had great variability with his 5700
in Speedlight mode.

As I indicated in my previous post, if I have to, I'll go
full-manual and hope the museum guys don't go crazy when
they see me aim a laser at their cars!

With a GN of 90, you will need to be at least 12 feet away (at f/8) to
avoid overexposure, unless you have ND filters. I'll take a look at the
pictures when you email them and see if I can see anything that gives me a
clue. I'd bet on a problem with the flash before a problem with the camera.

Here's another idea: if you deactivate the extra pins (either by opening
the flash and cutting the wires, or using plastic shims) the flash will
operate in plain old automatic mode, like it used to on your 4900.

Bob

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All Things Mopar wrote in news:Xns9594EBA6B990EReplyToken@
216.196.97.135:

bob commented courteously ...

Bob, I'm sorry if I got pevish with you. I apologize. It's
just that so many people - mainly at Nikon - have basically
insulted my intelligence for so long I get short-termpered.

No appology necessary!


Is the E-mail in your header correct, Bob? I'll try E-
mailing you my pics.

You need to modify the email according to the instructions in the signature
line -- e.g. take out the letters "MAPS"


e.

I've looked at Vivitar's website also. And, I've re-perused
my meager manual. If I understand it right, the 728 is
*only* TTL-auto with a Nikon or Canon autofocus SLR. Not
even sure if they mean "DSLR", since it doesn't say so.

I do know that Nikon and Canon have different shoes, but since yours has
the letters Ni in the model name, we know yours is for Nikon. The spec
sheet mentions some older Nikon cameras, like the 4004. The 4004 was pretty
basic, so if it worked with that, it ought to work with the newer stuff too
-- it just won't support all the new features. But the 5xxx series cameras
don't support all the new features either, so that's not an issue.


In any event, as best I've been able to determine through
testing, as well as from both phone and E-mail with Nikon,
the 5700's normal daylight/available light auto exposure
system is completely disabled when it is in "speedlight"
mode.

It determines that by the setting in Set-Up, which I have
set to "Auto". Then, I set the built-in Speedlight to be in
in Fill Flash mode, so it will always fire. If I turn my
Vivitar "on", the 5700 fires that, else, it fires the
Speedlight. But, in neither case is the auto exposure system
operating. When I want to go back to daylight/available
light, I set the Speedlight to only fire when it needs to.

When you say "fill flash" that means "always on" with the little lighting
bolt showing, right? The term "fill flash" can be used with a different
meaning too, but I see in my CP manual they use "fill flash" and "always
on" to mean the same thing. I don't do a lot of flash photography, but when
I have, it's been really reliable. I get overexposure with really close
subjects, and I get underexposure sometimes when I try to bounce off a dark
wall and the flash runs out of power, but in general it works pretty well.

either broken or very poorly designed. I just don't have the
variability with either my old Fuji 4900 or my wife's little
Kodak 6330 under exactly the same conditions (I tested them
and reported same to Nikon but those people are incredibly
arrogant!).

(Yes, they are {arrogant}). The 4900 has a one pin ISO shoe, so when you
use the flash with it, the only thing it can do is fire the flash. The
flash aparently knows it's not on a Nikon, so it uses the other sensor
behind the red spot on the front to know when to shut down. (It has to have
a sensor, because it has a test button/indicator -- without a sensor, it
couldn't know when to light up the indicator. The main purpose of the red
light though, is to light up a scene with infrared light that the slrs can
focus on). Since the 4900 only has one pin, it cannot control the exposure,
other than by selecting an aperature before you release the shutter.


Richard Tomkins in his reply to me on Oct. 28 in this thread
confirmed that he, too, had great variability with his 5700
in Speedlight mode.

As I indicated in my previous post, if I have to, I'll go
full-manual and hope the museum guys don't go crazy when
they see me aim a laser at their cars!

With a GN of 90, you will need to be at least 12 feet away (at f/8) to
avoid overexposure, unless you have ND filters. I'll take a look at the
pictures when you email them and see if I can see anything that gives me a
clue. I'd bet on a problem with the flash before a problem with the camera.

Here's another idea: if you deactivate the extra pins (either by opening
the flash and cutting the wires, or using plastic shims) the flash will
operate in plain old automatic mode, like it used to on your 4900.

Bob

--
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