Need some help with the Metz CL-45 CT1

The positive terminal of the battery should rest against the terminal of the holder that says '+', and the negative terminal of the battery should rest against the terminal of the holder that says '-'

In my own holder there are three negative terminals in a diagonal row, and the next diagonal row are two positive terminals

 

I'm not familiar with that particular flash and its battery holder, but the following is usually true for most battery holders.
Usually the flat end of the battery (-) goes in to the slots in the battery holder that have springs.
While the end of the battery that has the nipple goes in the slots of the holder with a flat metal disc.

 

To make things a little more complicated there are two different holders. One for NiCads and one for AA-batteries and the contacts are not in the same place (Since NiCad's are 1.2V and AA's 1.5 they need to be treated differently).
This is true for a Metz 45CT4, but I think it is the same with the CT1.
If you look into the battery compartment you will see three contacts and with NiCad you will be using the ones at 12 and 10 (upside down with the back towards you), and with the AA's it is 12 and 5.
So it may be the wrong holder, or the AA-circuit could be dead as well as the batteries misplaced.

Try measuring the voltage to see that the batteries at least are situated right and try again.

The Metz 45 is the only flash that I know of that treats NiCads and AAs differently.

If you open the holder and holds with the most curved side away from you, looking down (again this is with the back towards you) the batteries should be placed with the following down:

0000+0000
00-000+00
0000-0000
00+000-00

Not a very good drawing (sorry about the zeros, but the spaces disappeared when I posted it moving everything to the left), but if you have done it correctly you will see a diagonal of small buttons with flat bottoms at 12, 2 and 7 with the batteries in place.

Good luck.

 

Here is a link to the manual http://www.metzflash.co.uk/pdffiles/45cl1_e.pdf I have the same problem sometimes because the + and - have worn off my holder.

 

The CT1 is not a TTL flash, you need CT3 or CT4 for that.

 

The Metz 60CT and 45CT heads have a sliding scale on the back of the flash that you set to match the speed of the film. Then you slide the second slider to place the auto distance to be not more than the furthest thing you want to light. Set the contax,or any camera, at not faster than its flash synch speed (usually 1/60 for most focal plane shutters; any speed for in the lens leaf shutters) Longer shutter speeds allow more ambient light to contribute to lighting the scene.

The metz has many auto modes, like 5 or so I recall, that let you have better control of depth of field options if you do not need to light subjects at far away distances. There is a dial calculator on top of the head and it tells you how the camera aperture needs to be set to worktwith the amount of light that the flash puits out in this flash work in its manual (m) mode and its power winder (w), which do not use the on flash light sensor to cut off the flash head output.

 

Tom:

There are automatic flash functions built into this flash.

IIRC, it is similar to the 45CL1 flash so the manual linked to in Ben's post above has the answers to your questions (although they may not be obvious or as clear as they might be).

First, you need to download either Ben's manual, or this one, which is the full, multi-language version:

http://www.metz.de/fileadmin/fm-dam/Download/Photo_Electronic/Bedienungsanleitung/mecablitz/mecablitz_40_bis_45/mecablitz_45_CL_1_NC_D_F_NL_GB_I_E.pdf

In the case of the multi-language version, the equipment photographs you are interested in are on or near page 57 (and are much clearer). The english instructions start on page 29.

If you look at the photo on page 57 of that manual, you will see a dial in the centre that has an indicator on the bottom which can be set against the appropriate film iso. The other end of that indicator rests against a series of f/stops. Those f/stops are adjacent to a rotating dial with a series of distances printed on it. Along the top of that dial are 5 short lines under the word "AUTOMATIC".

If you set the point of the triangle against one of those lines, you will have chosen one of the 5 automatic ranges available. The triangle will be adjacent to both a distance and an f/stop. The f/stop is the one you set on your camera, and the distance is the maximum flash to subject distance that you can use with the flash.

You may notice that there are two further indicators on the dials - a "W" and an "N". If you use a wide angle diffuser on the flash, the "W" indicates the revised maximum flash to subject distance.

As to the shutter speed for the Contax, use the maximum speed that the camera's focal plane shutter synchs flash at. As I understand it, that is 1/125 second, but you should check that.

Hope this helps!

Matt