First Exposure

The Swiss Army knife of electronic flash units.

Mecablitz 40 MZ-3

It's funny how one totallyunrelated event will trigger apast memory. Recently, whileworking on a new photoproduct test report for Ruii^c-fmder, I suddenly foundmyself reminiscing about myfirst Swiss Army knife. I knewabout the prized knife from allthe older kids, and could hard-ly wait to get mine. It was dur-ing my scouting years that Ifinally got one as a birthdaypresent and I could hardlywait to go camping and give it

Bounce head reveals lower flash.

a whirl. I didn't care that it was 5° F. out-side, or that the snow was three feetdeep, I just wanted to use all those fancyattachments that came with such a finetool. It had a screwdriver, file, saw, scis-sors, punch, three knife blades, bottleopener, can opener and a half dozenother utensils that could do just aboutanything. It didn't matter that I couldn'tuse them all. Just knowing that it coulddo all those things was satisfactionenough.

Skipping back to reality, I find myselfholding the Mecablitz 40 MZ-3, an elec-tronic flash version of the Swiss Armyknife. This workhorse from Metz is builtto accomplish anything a photographermight want from a portable flash, andthen some. This heavyweight only

Close-up of LCD panel with flash in "Easy" mode.

designed for photographers of all skilllevels. The 40 MZ-3 can be set up forfully automatic operation for the begin-ner, or programmed to accomplish aspecific professional application.

Construction

If you look at the largest moving partson the flash, you will find that theMecablitz unit is divided into four dis-tinct areas. The main flash body housesthe flash capacitors, operating electron-ics, most of the controls and the batter-ies. The flash head attaches to the frontof the main body and is so versatile thatit can pivot down for macro shots, orturn up to a 90° angle for bounce flash.Located inside the head is a powerful

weighs in at approximately 9 oz, but it is zoom for lenses with focal lengths of

24mm to 105mm. The flashautomatically senses whichlens is attached to the camera,and sets the proper flash headangle on its own. You can alsopull out the unique diffuserpanel on the front of the flashhead and it will indicate thatyou can now cover the area ofa 20mm lens. The Mecablitz40 MZ-3 operates off 4 AA bat-teries and fits on your cameravia a hot-shoe that is so so-phisticated it even demands itsown tech manual!

Now comes the best part.Remember all those accessories

on the Swiss Army knife? Well, this flasheven has a second, smaller flash locatedunder the main flash. When the mainhead is turned up for bounce flash, youcan use this smaller flash to gently fill inthe shadows. This lower flash block alsohouses the auto exposure sensor, andthe low-light focus beam. This red gridbeam comes on when the light gets toolow for the camera to focus. The entirelower package can rotate in a 270° arcunder the main flash.

Finally, at the base of it all is the flashhot-shoe system. I remember when ahot-shoe was just a hot-shoe, but notwith this flash. Four additional flashcontrols are located on the hot-shoe andare unique to the functions of the cam-era brand assigned to that hot-shoe. Thehot-shoe itself can be removed and

42 RANCEFINDER • FEBRUARY 1998

replaced if you decide tochange camera brands.

Flash Controls

The on/off control forthe lower flash is locatedon the side of the lowerflash. All other 18 con-trols are located on theback of the flash andhot-shoe and slightlyresembles the inside ofan airliner cockpit. AnLCD panel displays alldata and helps guideyou when operating theflash system. Goingthough each control andexplaining its operationwould be like goingthrough the 66-pagetechnical manual that comes with the tions that best demonstrate uses for theunit. Instead, I thought I would high- corkscrew, scissors, saw and the otherlight a couple of typical shooting situa- nifty tools.

Full 771 through small light tent.

andThisyou

Direct TTL Flash: Oneof the easiest ways to usethe 40 MZ-3 is in theTTL position. Before tak-ing any pictures, checkthe film ISO rating withthe ISO button, andthen the exposure com-pensation on the base ofthe hot-shoe. Normallythe flash will pick up theISO setting from thecamera, so the onlychange would be if youwant something differ-ent than the standardISO. Once the modeswitch is in TTL and youhave a green light, youare ready. When youtake a picture, youshould get a steady beep

an "OK" on the back of the flash,will tell you that all went well andhave achieved a good exposure. If

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not, look at the distance rating on theLCD panel. If the subject distance fallsbeyond the near/far numbers, openyour lens aperture, shoot again and youshould get an "OK."Bounce TTL Flash: If you want to trybounce flash, first turn the flash head sothat it will bounce off a light coloredwall to the side, above or behind thecamera. Open the lens up a couple of f-stops and give it a try. If you want a littlebit of fill on the subject, turn on thelower flash and both will work in theTTL mode. In order to vary the lightingratio of the flashes, you can adjust eitherof the exposure-compensation switcheson the back of the hot-shoe.Auto Flash: If you find yourself in a situ-ation where TTL is not an option, switchthe mode slider to "Auto," and the autosensor on the front of the lower flashgoes to work. Direct flash, bounce, andremote all work the same as in the TTLmode, except the flash uses its own sen-sor instead of the one inside the camerathat operates the TTL system.Manual Flash: There will be times whenthe you will want absolute control overthe flash. Using the aperture control,you can adjust the effective f-stop of theflash with the +/- controls on the side ofthe LCD panel. As you jump throughthe f-stops, a distance for that settingwill appear on the left side of the LCDpanel. If you want to vary the amountof light from each flash, you can set apartial light output with the partial out-put button.

Remote Flash Capabilities

If you want to use the Mecablitz as acordless TTL flash, you will need theSCA 3080 adapter. Merely press the "re-mote" button and use the unit as a slaveflash. You will still need a Metz con-troller flash on the camera as a trigger,but it opens up a myriad of creative pos-sibilities.Rear Flash: Rear flash can be used byjust selecting the "Rear" button on theback of the hot shoe. This setting allowscamera and flash to work together atlong shutter speeds.Stroboscopic Flash: Creative photog-raphers will love this function. Whenthis position is selected, you can set thenumber of flashes and speed at whichthey will fire. If you want to see what theaction is going to look like, you can pressthe ready light on the back of the mainflash head, and the flash will strobe asthough the picture were being taken.Remember that this function only oper-ates in a manual flash mode, so look atthe distance scale on the LCD panel toselect the best distance for your selectedfilm speed and f-stop.

User Program Modes

If you have a favorite combination offlash controls, you can store these valuesin memory using the "store" and"recall" functions built into this pro-gram mode. Up to nine different pro-grams can be installed into available

RANCEFINDER • FEBRUARY 1998

memory. You canname your programsusing special stickersprovided that can bestored under the bot-tom edge of the flashhead.Easy Mode: If youwant to bypass all thevariable controls, theEasy mode will shutdown the LCD displayand lock all the con-trols. The basic TTLmode kicks in and allyou have to do is pointand shoot. If you get an"OK" from the flash,then just keep on

771 slave mode, bounce flash.shooting. Bounce andfill flash are still possible with the lower confident having all the other tools atflash in the Easy mode. The Easy mode your fingertips if you need them.is kind of like the single blade of theSwiss Army knife. You will probably use

If that is not enough knife blades orspecial functions for you, there is a

it the most, but it sure makes you feel multi-function switch for high speed

shooting, an LCD light,sound control, a back-l ight-compensationswitch and a mode func-tion lock. Now, if youtake these functions andall the combinationspossible with the 40 MZ-3, you will find morethan one million possi-ble combinations! Thatmakes the Mecablitz 40MZ-3 from Metz, oneheck of a Swiss Armyknife.

Information: BogenPhoto Corporation,565 E. Crescent Ave.,P.O. Box 506, Ramsey,NJ 07556-0506; (201)818-9500 or web site:

www.bogenphoto.com/.

Scott Adams is a freelance journalist/photographerliving in the Pacific Northwest.

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