The Olympus 35 sp (produced 1969-1976) had some interesting advanced for the time feature. One of the features is flash control: By setting the flash guide number (GN) on the aperture ring-dial the rangefinder's aperture setting is slaved to the rangefinder focus distance. The farther away the the subject is the more the lens opens up to compensate for light fall off of the flash with distance. For this type of event this method has certain advantages over an auto flash which is often fooled by bright or dark surfaces.
Add to the camera a small flash with a coiled connecting cable and this allows for some interesting handheld off camera flash use. Most of you need no reminding the benefits of using off camera axis flash over on camera flash. So far I have only used this for night street use but maybe I will try some Bruce Gilden flash in the face style shooting.
More of 2010 Halloween On Church St.
Contact sheet for the annual Dufferin Park The Night of the Dread. Here are the rest of the shots taken that night.
So ends the first stage of the experiment
Conclusions:
- Aperture slaved to flash guide number and the rangefinder' focus distance works well for getting good exposures.
- Flash handheld off angle is better then on camera flash and you can still focus OK
- For close work a flash diffuser would really really help and also allow a lot more background to show up.
- For this use B&W is better then colour.
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