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My old camera flash died on me inside the Crystal Mall food court last Sunday
I was exploring that dead mall in Waterford, Connecticut where the only thing left is a pizza place and a random kiosk, and my external flash just stopped working halfway through shooting the empty arcade. The thing just gave out with a little whine and a puff of smoke, no warning at all. Has anyone else had a piece of gear finally give up on them at the worst possible time in an abandoned spot?
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david_adams4d ago
That little whine is the worst, man. I had a flash do the same thing in an old bowling alley, and I just switched to a fast prime lens and pushed the ISO to 6400, the results were grainy but honestly it gave the whole place this gritty look that worked way better than what I was going for with the flash anyway.
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jamesrivera7d ago
...and that little whine is never a good sound, you know? I've had a speedlight cook itself right in the middle of a birthday party shoot once. What worked for me was swapping to manual mode and cranking the ISO way up, the food court lighting is probably garbage anyway so you might have to lean on whatever ambient light is actually coming through those skylights.
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The food court lighting in malls is almost always that weird mix of warm and cool LEDs that messes with white balance anyway lol. @jamesrivera is right about cranking ISO since those skylights only give you a few decent stops during midday. Honestly I'd rather have some grain than a melted flash tube sitting on my gear bag.
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