Sony Alpha 100- built in flash problems

[karlamb]

Hi! I'm new so I'll try to be as descriptive as possible. I have a Sony Alpha 100 and am having nothing but grief out of its built in flash. When I shoot snapshot style photos using my 3.5-5.6/18-70mm lens, the pics come out looking underexposed. I'm only at a distance of 3-4 feet in this photo and it came out like this. I also am having problems with the flash causing blinking-my subjects are almost always in mid-blink. Please note, I don't experience these problems all the time, probably about 60% have these problems.

I'm having problems uploading this photo- here is an address- sorry for the inconvience.
http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w...c/darkpic3.jpg

[Canuck935]

Hi Karla,

As a former a100 user, I know exactly what you are experiencing. Both the underexposure and the mid-blink (AKA "lazy eye") problems are known issues with the a100.

Underexposure:
The a100 can often suffer from flash underexposure issues if there are white and/or shiny objects in the picture. The camera is trying to save the highlights from blowing out so it bases the flash exposure off of the highlights which results in the terrible underexposure.

There are some workarounds. Unfortunately they all involve external flash units.
1) Use a Minolta/Sony flash unit and use either bounce (ok) or wireless (best) modes to get better flash exposures.
2) Get a third party flash that has it's own metering (thyristor) and use it in that mode.

Lazy-eye:
This is caused by the delay between the pre-flash and the exposure flash. When the camera makes a flash exposure, it actually fires off the flash twice. The first one is to calculate the exposure with, and the second one will be for the actual exposure. With the a100, there is enough time between the two that you will often end up with people in mid-blink by the time the exposure flash goes off.

Again, there's some workarounds.
1) Use rear-curtain sync. This will move the exposure flash from the beginning of the exposure to the end of the exposure. By increasing the time between the pre-flash and exposure flash, people may have enough time to blink and open their eyes again.
2) Tell your subjects to keep their eyes closed, then when you are ready to take your shot tell them to open their eyes. Take the shot immediately when they open their eyes. This will often defeat lazy-eye, but may result in funny expressions on some people forcibly throwing their eyes open.
3) The third party flash with thyristor metering. These don't use pre-flash so no lazy-eye.

The final option to both of these issues would be a new camera if it was a big enough problem for you. I can tell you from personal experience that the Sony a700 doesn't have either of these problems. I can't tell you if the problem has also been resolved in the a200, a300, or a350 models but hopefully people who have used those can chime in.

[karlamb]

Wow, wish I had known this before I purchased this camera! :mad2: At least now I know it isn't something I'm doing wrong, this has been driving me CRAZY for almost a year. You think Sony would have realized this OBVIOUS problem before distributing these cameras! I should have stuck with a Nikon, my 35mm Nikon was an excellent camera. A new camera isn't an option for me right now, so do you have any suggestions for a good but economical external flash? (the kind with a seperate metering system)
Thanks so much!
Karla

[Canuck935]

Yeah this problem was inherited from the Minolta 5D (which the a100 was heavily based upon). I'm not sure why they couldn't fix it for the a100. As for economical flash units, I believe ebay seller gadgetinfinity sells single and multiple flash kits that include auto thyristor flash(es) along with the required fs-1100 shoe adapter and off camera cables (for the multiple flash kit) at bargain prices. Of course you will be getting generic brand equipment and the flashes aren't very powerful (but still more powerful than the built in flash), but I've not heard of anyone having problems with any of their stuff. I have their fs-1100 adapter and cheap radio trigger and never had any problems with either one.

If you want a branded flash, you'll still have to get the fs-1100 adapter. You will have to do some research on the flash units though. Many use triggering voltages that will fry your camera. You may find fs-1100's with built in voltage protection as a work around.

Also, Metz makes some excellent flash units for Minolta/Sony. Depending on the model, you can get ADI, TTL, and thyristor metering, and other advanced functions such as High Speed Sync and Wireless. These are kinda pricey, however.

[karlamb]

You know what really bugs me about this is that I called Sony about 1 month after I purchased this camera and the representative that I talked to acted like he had no idea what I was talking about, it was all just something that I was doing wrong. He tried to tell me how to increase the ISO to compensate for not using the flash! (like I was an idiot and didn't know how to) I'm not an expert, but I know enough to realize that isn't going to help me very much, especially when I'm taking snapshots indoors, which is something you do often when you have children... This flash has ruined several special occasion shots that I just can't get back.....

But I do have to say that when I'm not using the flash, and am actually taking portraits, this camera performs wonderfully, the built in Super Steady Shot is excellent! You can get away with not using a flash sometimes thanks to it.

Thanks so much for the advice on the flashes! I'll go check out e-bay.