Has anyone tried any of the current generation Nissin built Leica flashes on an X2D?

[RWilsonL]

I am just in the process of acquiring an X2D, with both the body and a 35-75 lens bought, collecting the camera on Wednesday and the lens being delivered from Wex tomorrow. This is my first non-Leica acquisition for a long time, having been a Leica user and collector for the last 60+ years, with currently 37 different Leicas in my collection, some from two previous generations, also Leica users. I have both of the current Leica Nissin built flash guns, the SF40 small and SF60 larger models. Now I know these use Nikon pin out, as I use a Nikon SC28 flash extension cable with my TTL flash equipped Leica cameras (M7, M10-R, Q3, R9 etc). What Leica won't tell me is if they also use the Nikon TTL control protocol like the X2D does and if at least it was safe to try and SF60 flash on my X2D. My guess is that it would be perfectly safe and at worst I can just use the flashes on auto mode, not using the TTL sensor in the camera.

Wilson

 

[RWilsonL]

Apparently although Leica do use the Nikon pin out, for reasons best known to themselves (Not Invented Here Syndrome), they decided to go with wholly different and proprietary control and communication protocols. I suspect it was down to forcing Leica owners like me to buy the expensive Leica branded Nissin built flashes rather than the cheaper "for Nikon" versions. Hasselblad went the more sensible route and as well as adopting Nikon flash pin out for their hot shoe, also adopted the Nikon flash control and communication protocols. I have in consequence purchased a used Nikon SB-910 Speedlight flashgun. I was tempted to buy a new Godox 350N (for Nikon), which was on sale at a very good price, about the same as I paid for the secondhand Nikon flash but decided the additional features of the Nikon flash, assuming they are all working, was a better buy.

Wilson

 

[Bags]

This is way over my pay grade, as I don't often shoot flash, and I don't have an answer. All I do know is that I tried my SF40 with my Blad 500c/m and it worked fine. I haven't tried it with my 907x 50c, so I'm interested in any answer.

 

[RWilsonL]

The problem as I see it with the Nissin flashes, excellent as they are on Leica, far better than the previous generation Metz flashes, is that unsurprisingly, they were designed and built as TTL flashes from the start and don't have their own light sensor thyristor control for semi-auto flash. This means that you can only use them in manual mode, when TTL would not be available, as on a Hasselblad camera and revert to what I used to do many years ago, which is to calculate the aperture setting from the flash number, ISO rating and object distance, by which time your subjects have either died of boredom or moved away. We have all become lazy with the advent of thyristor control in the late 1960s and TTL in the 90s and I for one, would not wish to go back to that era. So whereas I am sure you are correct and that both the SF40 and 60 would fire on the Hasselblad, they would not communicate or be controllable. I did not pay a lot for the secondhand SB-910 flash, certainly compared with the cost of the X2C and XCD 35-75 zoom lens. I think the SB-910 is the top of the current range of Nikon flashes and provides full communication and control with my X2C-100C, so that seemed the better route to go. I have been asked to be a secondary photographer at a family wedding in May and I shall be taking my Hasselblad and the SB-910 plus my Leica Q3 and SF60 flash.

Wilson

 

[RWilsonL]

I have finally had a call back from an old friend who works for Leica, albeit he is due to retire very soon. I get 100% honest answers from him, not filtered through the lens of Leica PR/Corporate-speak. After we had arranged a lunch together for next month, we then tackled the question of a Nissin/Leica Flash, used on a Hasselblad X2D camera, which was the message I had left for him. His thoughts were that this might be best avoided. He said it is a minuscule risk but still a risk when you have two different systems trying to actively communicate with each other. He said that the likelihood would be that the contacts on the camera would be very well protected, like those on Leica cameras are, from spurious and stray currents or voltages but the TTL contacts on the Nissin built flashes are almost certainly less well protected. Therefore if there were to be any damage, the probable victim would be the flash. He went on to say that given the likely high cost of any repair to the X2D, he personally would not risk attaching a non-approved protocol TTL flash to the camera. The only non-Nikon format flashes he might attach, would be either a wholly manually controlled or thyristor controlled "Auto" flash.

Wilson