List Price: $599.99
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Summary: If you have an Olympus Four-Thirds System Digital SLR camera, this is the flash to buy for it.
My Background: I am an accomplished amateur, with quite a bit of experience. I got my first "real" camera as a teenager in the 1960's. My last one before my current camera was an Olympus OM-2n. I have won awards in both the photo contests I have entered. I enjoy the technical aspects of photography. I didn't just read the manuals that came with my camera and flash, I studied them.
My camera: My newest camera is an Olympus e-520, which has all the communication capability necessary to use the FL-50R's features. Some features may not be available with your camera, so you should check your camera's manual and the flash unit's manual to be sure. [Aside: I was unable to find a download for the FL-50R manual anywhere, so I e-mailed Olympus support. They sent me a link that worked for me, but is no longer valid. I suspect that if you e-mail them, you can get the manual in PDF format, as I did.] [Edit-24 December 2009: In his comments on this review, Neal E. Tornberg gives the following link to a PDF file of the manual for this flash. Thanks, Neal. [Edit-9 February 2012: The link Neal provided is no longer valid.]
Pros:
* Absolutely the best feature of this flash (for me) is its power. At ISO 400, with the lens at f4, the auto flash will shoot out to 25 meters. That's 82 feet! Switch to ISO 800 or f2.8 and you can shoot a subject over 100 feet away. The GN (Guide Number) for this flash is 50 (in meters). If you do your calculations in feet, the GN is 164!
* The flash zooms in and out automatically with the camera lens, up to a point. It has an equivalent focal length range of 12-42 mm (24-84 equivalent in 35 mm). This is exactly the range of the standard lens on my camera. There is a wide angle diffuser panel built in so you can use wider lenses if desired. You may zoom the flash manually in some modes.
* My camera uses its built-in flash to illuminate dark areas when auto-focusing. With the FL-50R mounted, it uses the auto-focus emitter on the FL-50R. This is a separate, relatively low-intensity, red emitter. It is much, much faster and much, much less annoying to people than the camera's built-in flash.
* If the flash is mounted on the camera, when you turn the camera off, the flash also turns off. (Actually it goes into SLEEP mode, but the result is the same.) When you turn the camera back on, the flash comes on as well. This will save your flash batteries.
* While you can use the Olympus lithium battery ($10), this flash works extremely well with NiMH rechargeable batteries. The manual says NiMH batteries will take about 200 photos. I took about 250 flash photos of various power levels before recharging my 2700 mAh, NiMH batteries, but the LOW BATTERY indicator had not come on yet. With NiMH, the flash charging time (time from turn on until you get a CHARGE light) was 4.8 seconds with fresh batteries. This increased to 6.8 seconds after about 60 flash photos at various flash intensities. Even after 250 flashes, the charging time never got ridiculously long.
* There is an FP AUTO mode that allows you to use the flash even at high shutter speeds. This allows use of fill-in flash for backlit subjects on bright day.
* The flash has a LIGHT button that illuminates the flash's control display. How nice that someone thought that you might be using a flash because the light was dim. The display will also illuminate on a signal from the camera.
Cons:
* The manual warns not to use this flash on non-Olympus cameras. (Page 49)
* This unit is big. I don't find it uncomfortably large, but that's mostly because I am willing to deal with the extra weight and volume in order to get the features this flash supplies. When it's mounted on my camera and it's hanging from the neck strap, the camera flops down and is difficult to carry easily.
* There is a limit to the number of flash emissions you are allowed in a given time. This is difficult to use in real life. The limit is 10 full-power flashes in 10 minutes, or 20 half-power flashes in 10 minutes, etc. Since you don't know the power of any given flash emission in any of the AUTO modes, you must estimate the usage and curtail flash photography as required. The reason is that the light unit gets hot, as do the batteries.
* The attachment for the reflector adaptor is seriously hokey. Basically, Olympus uses the equivalent of a rubber band to strap the adaptor to the flash. About the only good thing you can say about this is that the reflector adaptor doesn't seem to be very useful, so you'll probably leave it in a drawer anyway. There is no place to stow it on the FL-50R.
Additional Notes:
* The RC (Remote Control?) mode allows you to mount the FL-50R on a small stand (included), or a light stand, or a tripod. The flash can be controlled by a compatible camera. The drawback to this is that the FL-50R must be able to "see" the camera's flash (which is used to control the remote FL-50R). That is, there must be a line-of-sight between them. While this feature is nice, the line-of-sight requirement can be a serious limitation, especially if you want to use the FL-50R to illuminate the background for a portrait. As an alternative, the flash can be used in SLAVE mode, and it will fire when it senses a flash from another source.
* If the flash is mounted on the e-520 camera and turned on, you cannot use the camera's built-in flash. If the FL-50R is turned off, the camera's flash will try to pop up, but it will be prevented by the FL-50R from extending all the way. You must remove the FL-50R in order to stow the camera's flash. This is not true for all camera models, and you may use the camera's flash in addition to the FL-50R with other cameras.
* Like most modern flash units, this one will vary the intensity to fit the situation. You can always use MANUAL mode to override this. After taking a photo in one of the reduced power modes, the AUTO CHECK light will flash if the flash had enough power. If the light doesn't flash, your picture is likely underexposed.
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