M sync by mistake

Camerarabbit · May 29, 2021

Hello all,
I did a nighttime shoot yesterday with a Mamiya Press lens and Contax TLA 200 flash @ 125th/second. Noticed today that my flash sync was set to M and not x :/ I’ve been looking online to see if i got lucky enough for it to not matter, but wanted to check here and see if anyone can tell me before I process my film if the flash worked fine with this setting or not. Thanks for the help!

MattKing · May 29, 2021

Your flash will probably already have finished before your shutter even opened.
But it is worthwhile to develop the film, because you never know whether the M setting is correct (unless you know that it has been serviced).
I once owned a Mamiya lens where the synch selector was contact cemented in the X position.

Camerarabbit · May 29, 2021

Thanks!

shutterfinger · May 29, 2021

M flash bulbs were designed to be used with shutter speeds of 1/30 or slower. M sync on a shutter delays the opening of the shutter blades by 15 milliseconds. Full power electronic flash duration is 1/100 second or there about. Its highly doubtful you captured any flash light output.

BrianShaw · May 29, 2021

The Good news... you’ll not likely make that error again!

Helge · May 30, 2021

You might have excited photo luminescent materials, depending on where you shot, catching the afterglow.

maltfalc · May 30, 2021

take a meter reading through your camera lens with your flash and camera set to the same settings you used during the shoot then a second reading with the sync set to x to determine how many stops you accidentally pushed your film.

Helge · May 30, 2021

maltfalc said:
take a meter reading through your camera lens with your flash and camera set to the same settings you used during the shoot then a second reading with the sync set to x to determine how many stops you accidentally pushed your film.

Excellent advice!
That will tell you exactly what you need to know.

If you think you can and want to coax more shadow detail from the exposure, you could try latensification or peroxide post dev hypering.

Camerarabbit · May 31, 2021

maltfalc said:
take a meter reading through your camera lens with your flash and camera set to the same settings you used during the shoot then a second reading with the sync set to x to determine how many stops you accidentally pushed your film.

thanks for the thought. i was shooting people dancing in pretty much complete darkness, so no pushing will correct the lack of flash sadly

maltfalc · Jun 2, 2021

CameronRabbit said:
thanks for the thought. i was shooting people dancing in pretty much complete darkness, so no pushing will correct the lack of flash sadly

that's why i'm telling you to meter the flash with m and x-sync to see how much flash made it through with m-sync...

M sync by mistake

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