Trouble shooting the Contax T and T14 Help

[gob]

Hi there,

I just bought a Contax T and have been checking it out make sure everything is in working order.
One thing I've noticed. When the flash is attached and activated, the shutter speed indicator in the view finder flashes (as it is indicated in the manual) however, the shutter speed is no different than it would be if the flash was not activated.

For ex&le, with no flash, the finder indicates the shutter speed is less than 1/30sec (with a continuous indicator light). When I attach and active the flash, it still indicates the shutter speed is less than 1/30sec, regardless of selected aperture (although with a flashing indicator light). Therefore it seems the camera is indicating it has selected the same shutter speed for a given aperture, regardless of whether the flash is on or not.

Is this normal? This does not seem logical to me and I have a feeling the camera is faulty. Can someone explain what is suppose to happen?

Thanks very much for your help.

 

[sonny]

Hi Graham,
If your T has an Auto Flash setting as well as a fill-in (or Flash ON) setting, I don't think that there is anything wrong with the camera.

My TvsII has both settings.
In Auto flash setting the camera always fires at 1/60th, regardless the aperture that I set.
In the fill-in flash setting it fires at ANY speed (thus making long time exposures also possible); so a shutter speed of "less than 1/30sec" sounds logical to me. This fill-in setting is for high contrast-scenes, where flash needs to 'fill in' shadows or backlit subjects, but without destroying the ambient light itself.
Does your T have both flash settings? If so, I shouldn't worry too much. Take it out tomorrow in daytime and you'll see that the camera, set to fill-in flash, is going to fire at amuch faster speed.

I'm not sure this answers your question; I seem to have mislaid the T-Manual that I once possessed, so I cannot check this reply properly.

Hope to hear from you,

Peter (Sonny)

 

[gob]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for your help and for replying. There is only a 'flash on' mode for the camera. I guess I was thinking that if the camera indicated a shutter speed of less than 1/30 with the flash activated, I would end up with an overexposed picture with evidence of camera shake. However, perhaps when the flash is discharged the shutter speed compensates to give correct exposure (?). Usually with a simple flash setup, as you indicate, the the shutter speed is fixed to 1/125 or 1/60 or .... and the aperture is used to compensate for subject distance.

I'm just looking for some verification that this is or isn't normal, so I know whether or not to return it.

Thanks
Graham