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METZ MECABLITZ 64 AF-1
A powerful flash that's occasionally tripped up by its touchscreen.
Metz has a new flagship in its compact flash fleet, the Mecablitz 64 AF-1-and it's a serious light thrower. With a guide number of 64 at ISO 100 and 200mm, this is one of the most powerful on-camera flashes you can buy.
It boasts a newly developed motorized zoom with full-frame coverage ranging from 24 to 200mm. You can get a wider (12mm) angle of illumination with the built-in reflector and wide-angle diffuser, both of which slide out easily from the top of the unit. Beyond its range, it has the full complement of features you would expect from a high-end flash unit, including master/slave settings for off-camera flashes, a modeling light, a power pack connection and a built-in secondary flash tube with variable output settings for adding fill light.
The Mecablitz 64 AF-1 is available in five versions to support TTL and wireless TTL (where applicable) for Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Olympus/Panasonic/Leica, and Sony cameras (sorry Fuji shooters). There's also full-manual, 12-stop automatic, servo, strobe, high-speed, auto-fill and bracketing modes. The head swivels vertically from -9 degrees to 90 degrees and horizontally at 300 degrees.
For our test we called on the skills of David Patino (www.davidpatino.com), a professional photographer, director, artist and self-professed gearhead based in northern New Jersey. We tested a Canoncompatible 64 AF-1 on a Canon EOS 5D Mark II. We also toyed with non-TTL settings on a Nikon D610, just for fun.
GETTING TOUCHY
Beyond its extensive feature set and flash range, the big selling point on the AF 64-1 is its touchscreen interface. There are only three buttons on the back of the unit: a power switch, a menu button and a flash trigger. Patino's personal preference is to avoid touchscreens whenever possible. For him, physical buttons and dials are the express lane to the features you want. The AF 64-1 failed to convince him otherwise.
The menu system on the flash is straightforward-in fact, we'd venture a guess that many will find it quicker to grasp than the button-and-LED approach favored by its competitors. It's very easy to get a quick read on your flash settings by glancing at the display, and additional information is...