Chan Tran
Subscriber
You're missing the point, Chan. I fully agree that the manufacturers claimed output is overstated. That's what I said in my original post.
The bottom line is that it doesn't really matter for practical purposes.
There are really only three ways to determine exposure:
1) A handheld flash meter (like the Sekonic)
2) A flash metering system in the camera and/or flash
3) A manual calculation based on actual flash output.
Knowing the actual flash output is only useful in method 3, where you need to do a manual calculation to determine exposure, based on camera to subject distance. In your example with a ceiling bounce, you could use method 1 with a handheld flash meter at the subject to determine exposure. You could also rely on the reflected light measurement from the camera/flash system, as in method 2. Both methods 1 and 2 should indicate underexposure if there's not enough light. Method 2 would be fast and easy, while method 1 could be somewhat inconvenient, depending on the situation.
That leaves method 3. You could take your known flash output, and then measure the distance from the flash to the ceiling. With that you'd have to estimate the reflectance value of the ceiling and determine how much light loss is at the ceiling. After that you'd have to measure the distance from the ceiling to the subject, and then calculate the amount of light hitting the subject, in order to determine the exposure. ..... several hours later you'd be ready to take a picture.
The bottom line is that for practical purposes, you either have to rely on the handheld meter or an in camera/flash metering system to determine exposure. Knowing the perfect guide number isn't going to help in any useful way, other than to tell you your range is limited with any flash.
It matters because I don't have enough flash power for what I want to do. I have to buy flash with higher GN rating than what I figure I would need. Besides I believe the OP doesn't have problem to get correct exposure he was just wondering why the flash put out less light than what he expected. Also there is the #4 way to determine exposure which is to estimate the power level needed in manual mode. When you get used to it you can just get it.