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Product Reviews:
Good flash, but could be improved, May 10, 2003
Reviewer: Jose C. Elias Espinal
Before I received the flash in the mail I was scared that it was going to
look awful with the sexy F717 camera body, but once I tried it on it kind
of look cool anyways. However it is time for sony to come up with a flash
that matches the rest of the camera's sexy looks and color.
Performance-wise it works as advertised: great for illuminating subjects
far away from the camera. HOWEVER, there are problems: (1) Battery life is
short. Get ready to buy a full set of 4 AA batteries before you fill up a
128Mb memory stick. (2) The flash and the camera do NOT integrate well in
the sense that if the subject is near the flash still fires at full power
(actually, it seems to always fire at the same high power), thus making
the whole picture almost a ghost of whiteness (the fix here is to turn off
the external flash and use the built-in pop-up flash, which by the way
pops up open with no problem even with the external flash unit mounted on
top). On the plus side, the flash rotates up-down freely or to prefix
positions (15, 30, 45, 60, 90 degrees, etc), AND it comes with an input
jack so that you can plug in the external RMDR1 remote control unit (note
that the flash plugs into the camera's remote control unit port, so that's
why now the remote control plugs into the flash unit).
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HVL-F1000 - decent flash, October 29, 2002
Reviewer: Paul
The HVL-F1000 is dedicated to some Sony digital cameras, such as my
MVC-CD400.
It connects to a camera via its permanently attached 11 inch dedicated
sync cord - a single mini plug with four contacts on it.
The HVL-F1000 has NO HOTSHOE CONNECTION - the mount is a contactless
coldshoe which can be mounted to (but not fired by) any shoe, hot or cold,
or attached to a standard 1/4 thread due to the threaded hole on the
bottom of the coldshoe.
At the time I am writing this (10-29-2002), some websites claim the flash
features TTL metering - it is not true. The HVL-F1000 features non-TTL
metering via the sensor on the face of the flash. If the sensor on the
flash is covered, or not pointing at the subject, the flash has no idea
when to cut off light output. This is detailed in its own instruction
sheet, and I have proven it in my own tests. At no point do the
instructions indicate any possibility of TTL flash metering when using
this flash with any camera model.
On the plus side, it is a nice flash when used as instructed, with the
flashs built-in sensor facing the subject. With a guide number of
28(meters), it works well even as a bounce flash in a typical room.
Also, there is no preflash to prevent it from triggering a studio flash
setup. My MVC-CD400s built-in flash triggers the slave sensor on my studio
lights with its preflash, and then the studio lights do not flash for the
actual exposure. This no-preflash aspect of the HVL-F1000 is a big reason
why I am keeping it. Its much safer for the cameras internal electronics
than connecting a high-trigger-voltage strobe directly to the cameras
hotshoe.
Although it is not a TTL flash, I still recommend it over using ANY third
party flash, which run high risks of creating non-warranty-covered damage
to a digital cameras internal electronics.
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Sony HVLF1000 External Flash for MVCCD500, DSCF717/V1/R1 Cameras
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