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When using a speedlight shooting into a reflective umbrella do you turn the AF beam on the flash off or leave it on or does it not matter
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AF beam off or on
- Thread starter troutfisher
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That's what I thought but I thought I would ask just in case
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It's just a light to provide contrast - so won't affect anything - I'd leave it on unless it annoyed you 
sk66
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Well, I almost never have it on anyway... will it even illuminate if the flash is off camera? The flash doesn't know the camera is trying to focus (does it?); the TTL communication isn't transmitted until the shutter is released. Either way, it shouldn't matter other than wasting battery power.
Back before auto focus beams in the early days of digital photography, getting the camera to focus in very dimly lit locations was next to impossible. I came up with the idea of using a red laser gunsight and made a foot for the laser that let me mount it on a cold shoe next to the camera. I had to explain what the red dot was, or everyone would hit the deck when I turned it on, thinking that I was pointing a gun at them, but once they knew what I was doing there was no problem. The red dot showed in the photos that I took, but it was easy to remove the dot in Photoshop, so focus problem solved..
I'm on my 4th, maybe 5th camera since I did that, but last year when unpacking an old camera bag to re-use it again, I found that laser, and it still works. I now use Godox and Flashpoint flashes and transmitters, and the transmitters have a laser cross hatch line generator built in. When I auto focus the camera, the red laser cross hatch illuminates briefly while the camera focuses, then goes out for the photo shot. This is much better than my old gunsight, and I don't have to remove the red dot from my photos any more, but now I have a spare laser gunsight. Should I buy a gun for it?
Edit -
The focusing laser cross hatch laser light is projected from the flash transmitter on the camera, not from the speedlite behind the umbrella or from a studio light. There is a small red plastic window in the transmitter that this laser projects through that points toward the object that the camera is pointed to. The reflection of this laser cross hatch pattern is then seen by the focusing electronics of the camera to achieve the lens focus. When the focusing is complete, the cross hatch laser light is switched off and the camera takes the shot. Sorry, I neglected to say this in the post before this edit.
Charley
I'm on my 4th, maybe 5th camera since I did that, but last year when unpacking an old camera bag to re-use it again, I found that laser, and it still works. I now use Godox and Flashpoint flashes and transmitters, and the transmitters have a laser cross hatch line generator built in. When I auto focus the camera, the red laser cross hatch illuminates briefly while the camera focuses, then goes out for the photo shot. This is much better than my old gunsight, and I don't have to remove the red dot from my photos any more, but now I have a spare laser gunsight. Should I buy a gun for it?
Edit -
The focusing laser cross hatch laser light is projected from the flash transmitter on the camera, not from the speedlite behind the umbrella or from a studio light. There is a small red plastic window in the transmitter that this laser projects through that points toward the object that the camera is pointed to. The reflection of this laser cross hatch pattern is then seen by the focusing electronics of the camera to achieve the lens focus. When the focusing is complete, the cross hatch laser light is switched off and the camera takes the shot. Sorry, I neglected to say this in the post before this edit.
Charley
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