Metz 52 AF-1 Digital Flashgun for Sony M.I Cameras - Black

Metz Mecablitz 52 AF-1 (Canon ETTL fit) reviewMetz have been a manufacturer of high quality flashguns for decades. The market has changed and hammerhead, off-camera flashes are not as popular as they once were. The job of third-party manufacturers such as Metz, Nissin, Vivitar and Sunpak to produce hot-shoe mounted speedlites to compete with the marque brands (e.g. Canon, Nikon) is more difficult with increasing sophistication and dedication is a challenge. But Metz have persevered with their high reputation and feature set to carve out a niche for themselves in the modern, all-digital world.This flashgun is made in Germany and you know you are getting German build-quality and £200-worth of flashgun when you unpack the box. The 52 AF-1 is a high quality item, very well made with tight tolerances and a general quality feel to it. The only immediate ergonomic disadvantage apparent compared to Canon is that the Metz has an old-fashioned locking wheel set-up whereas Canons now have the lock slide and rubberised waterproof collar. The 52 AF-1 is solid, weighty and compact and sits, in terms of size and power output, somewhere between Canon’s 430EX and 600EX speedlites. Tilt and swivel head operation is positive and smooth with no ‘drift’. Full 90 degree bounce and 360 degree swivel is possible. A wide angle diffuser and pull out bounce board are included and located next the flash head. Four AA batteries are needed for power and fit into a very tight battery compartment on the side, which has a somewhat fussy sliding cover.The menu system just uses three hard buttons on the back – the rest is menu driven by a touch screen LCD display, which changes from portrait to landscape orientation as you move the flash gun through 90 degrees – i.e. vertical to horizontal. This makes reading the display easy. The touch sensitivity is fair but not quite as smooth and seamless as an iPhone or the touchscreen display LCD of some EOS cameras. You have a standard feature set that you would expect from a modern ETTL / ATTL speedlite: master or slave flash function; ETTL, manual and strobe mode; auto zoom; flash exposure compensation; flash range indication; fill flash; high speed sync; display adjustments (e.g. brightness, contrast) though there are no custom functions as such.Metz have designed this camera well and it works surprisingly interactively with the camera menu (I tested it with an EOS 70D). Quite a lot of the speedlites functions can be controlled from the camera, as if it were a ‘Canon’ speedlite. It sees most of the speedlite functions as ‘custom functions’ and you can toggle them accordingly – power save, mode, high speed / second curtain sync, etc. And main ETTL functions can be changed by a direct menu item under the flash menu.First experiments with flash exposure were very favourable, with highly accurate exposures. Bounce and fill flash worked very well indeed and it was indistinguishable from the 430EX2 in that sense. That is commendable and this gives a fine alternative to the Canon marque speedlites. The touch screen menu works well and the speedlite is a complex or as simple as you want it to be.I am undertaking a long term test and will report back soon, re: wireless and multiple flash set-ups.So far, highly recommended…..

This item is very well made. It was constructed in Germany and feels like it has been subject to many quality control checks. The locking mechanism to the hot-shoe on my RX1r is via a sturdy plastic thumbscrew which requires about 3/4 of a turn. The Sony multi-interface contains multiple thin wires and when the hot-shoe is not in use, it is covered by a protective hard plastic cover. I was pleased to note that the connection on the Metz 52 AF-1 was also provided with a hard plastic cover which slid over the hot-shoe contact.All of Sony's automatic exposure modes were available as well as the expected manual mode. Settings were made via a touchscreen which I found to be easy to use and self explanatory. Accuracy of exposure was faultless in whichever automatic mode I selected. I particularly like the quality of image when I bounced the light from a wall behind me. Soft and even light gave me a look which would be the sort of image I would expect from a studio with large light shaping modifiers. There was no suggestion that continued usage would cause the flashgun to close down because of heat sensor issues. I captured around 100 images and still the temperature gauge registered coolThe price is amazingly good value when compared to that of the flashguns where they are supplied directly by Sony. The less powerful HVL 43m is £329 from Sony and the slightly more powerful HVL 60 is £549 from Sony. Both of these flashguns have a video light which the Metz item does not but my saving over retail is either £160 or £380 respectively. Metz have been making flashguns for about 60 years so I am sure that they are competent to continue.Easy to use, good build quality, very clear instruction manual and a soft case are all included. I like the temperature gauge and the range of shots from 4 fresh alkaline batteries is about 240 at full power to around 3000 at 128th power. This is a powerful and outstanding product and I would recommend it highly. It should improve your images made with flash. It lets you take advantage of high speed flash sync too and includes a very helpful modelling light.

It was with some concerns that I bought this flash for my Canon EOS 80D camera. Due to the relatively newness of that camera model many third party flashes can have issue with the beam focus assistance, TLL and HSS. However I was most impressed that I got a very prompt and detailed reply from Metz informing me how well this particular model supported my camera in the functions noted.Mine arrived and I am pleased to say tha tit does indeed support the Canon EOS 80D and it seems to work as expected.I love the touch interface, after all that is one reason as to why I bought an 80D - I have cludgy fingers and small tiny buttons and my fingers do not mix too well....! But the UI and touch support on the back screen of this flash is great. The charge and recycle time is also superb.As Amazon tend to delete external links from reviews just search for the Metz website and their you can download the manual for this flash if you need to check it out before buying.The flash itself comes with a very detailed manual in paper form which explains well enough the flash units functions and how best to set them depending on your needs and the cameras functions.I found that using a 60th sec shutter speed with an /ISO of 100 and an aperture of 5.6 allowed this flash to keep up pretty well when indoors with low ambient lighting. The shots were good and whilst there were a couple of times when using hi speed burst mode the flash needed to catch up the subjects were lit well, as was the background. Each successive shot was also consistent in its lighting, showing good and uniform power control when using multiple shots.The bag that the unit comes in is also great for its protection and whilst the unit might be a little expensive it does what I need it to in a very good way, the limitations are only with my own skill.