The flash exposure compensation (FEC) control adjusts the total
amount of flash exposure in much the same way as the EV compensation
control affects the ambient exposure calibration: it sets the flash
metering circuit to adjust the amount of flash used in the exposure
up or down based upon its setting, in EV.
On the occasions when I use the built-in flash, I use it primarily as
a way to obtain a little bit of direct, on-camera fill for high-
contrast situations (like a sunlit day at the beach, etc). For that
reason, I normally have the FEC set to either -0.7 or -1.0 EV and use
the camera in Tv mode at 1/125 second. The result is that the ambient
meter sets the aperture based on the ambient light to a reasonable
value, and the flash metering cuts the flash importance to be under
the daylight by that amount. The integrated result with P-TTL is to
reduce the hot-looking glare of on-camera flash and fill in shadows
nicely.
The FEC control only affects the built-in or dedicated external flash
systems running P-TTL or TTL metering. It has no effect on something
like my non-dedicated Sunpak 383 external flash.
Godfrey
On Apr 3, 2006, at 8:51 AM, Shel Belinkoff wrote:
Last night, while trying to get some pics of my cat in a very dark
room, I
decided to try the pop-up flash on the istDS. A little symbol in the
viewfinder was blinking, and upon checking into the cause, I found
that
flash compensation had been set. So, what is flash compensation
and when
would it be used?
Shel
