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Tips for Using a Point & Shoot Camera
-- Tony Samples, November 23, 2001
Bit the bullet, bought a yashica T4 super through the classifieds here. $130 from Toronto,
brand new in box with warranty. Dis-satisfied with the puny flash, although I do like all
the flash options. Bought a Konica flash bracket with built-in sensor, specifically
designed for point and shoot cameras. Best $30 I have ever spent, also through these
classifieds. Went to Washington DC and spent the day at the Air and Space Museum and
burned 11 rolls of film between my new point and shoot and my old Canon AE1-
Program with a 50mm lens (vs the 35mm on the Yashica). Used the same flash for both
cameras. On the point and shoot bracket, the upright hot shoe portion is placed slightly
ahead of the front of the camera so that the built in sensor facing the side of the camera
can tell when the on camera flash goes off and then fires the main flash. (Vivitar 285).
On the Canon set up, I have an old Roberts bracket (also bought here) which places the
flash in approximately the same position relative to the lens but I used a sync cord with
that. I had to guess on what to set the 285 flash on using 400 ASA film on the Yashica
T4 Super. (Yeah, I know, but it's a big space with lots of stuff, and it's not for their
magazine, but my trip album) So, I set the flash on Red, which gave me the equivalent f4
and about 30 feet or so, plus whatever the P&S flash added. They don't allow tripods
anymore, so I had my improvised monopod which is eyebolts screwed into the tripod
sockets of the brackets with nylon rope attached, dangling down about 6 feet, and then I
step on the end, marked with a black stripe, pull up to tension it, adjust the height of the
viewfinder and get a nice, steady picture. Albeit some very strange looks and an
occasional inquiry as to why. I think you will see more of these around, maybe... (God,
he do go on don't he?) Bottom line, I shot several pictures with and without main flash on
the point and shoot. These were not bounced, but direct! The difference was astonishing.
I shot a panoply of large aircraft that hang in the main hall, using only the on-camera
flash and with the automatic backlight compensation working perfectly (I was shooting
against a 50'x200' window in sunlight), I got some crystal clear, dark outlines with some
detail from the closest plane, a Ford Tri-Motor. You could see the propeller, but not
much detail on the fuselage. Then I used the big flash on the bracket with the point and
shoot. You could see every detail of the fuselage, the front engine, the landing gear, also
the nose of the plane 30 feet behind was perfectly visible and the colors and some of the
detail of the others, 50+ feet away were also visible. Then I shot another pair of an X-15
rocket plane with the Wright Brother's Flyer framed under it's wing. The nozzle of the X-
15 was approximately 8 feet from the camera. Without add flash, the rocket plane was
perfectly exposed, but the Flyer was a little dim. With added flash, the X-15 tail section
was over-exposed, the Flyer was perfectly crisp and clear. Some thoughts: My Vivitar is
a semi-manual flash, not TTL If you are going to use a manual flash, try to find out what
the largest opening would be for your point and shoot when using flash. Since the
Yashica has a f3.5 lens, f4 on the flash would match OK, provided you were going to
illuminate further than 15-30 feet or more. Point and shoots tend to open their lenses as
wide as possible and control the exposure through shutter speed, the print film can handle
the added light just fine. The offset of the supplementary flash also tends to eliminate
http://www.photo.net/learn/point-and-shoot-tips (33 of 35) [5/15/2002 7:15:46 PM]