Olympus FS-STF22 Twin Flash Set field test

Pete April 22, 2015April 22, 2015 0 Comments Bee, Drone Fly, Early Mining Bee, Fly, Large Red-tailed Bumble Bee, Macro, Olympus 25mm extension tube, Olympus FS-STF22 twin flash, Olympus OM Telescopic Auto Tube 65-116, Olympus OM-D E-M5, Orange-tip butterfly, Rhingia rostrata fly, Small Garden Bumble Bee, Technique, Whitemill, Yellow Dung Fly, Zuiko Olympus OM 80mm F4 Macro lens

I found a mint condition Olympus FS-STF22 twin flash set going at a very reasonable price, which arrived in time for the weekend just gone. The thinking behind the purchase was that it would make the setting and controlling of the flash power much easier with the EM5 digital camera to that of using the legacy Olympus flash system. I had to do a lot of fiddling both with the legacy flash controller and in camera to get reasonably good results, and much of the time it was more miss than hit.

These are my preliminary observations:

Reasonably simple instructions to follow.
There are several power setting options, including both TTL and manual.
There are modelling lamps which will stay on for up to 30 seconds (you can adjust the length of time these remain on for). This looks to be a potential benefit to use when shooting extreme macro (Jury is out until used)
The rotating angles of the flash heads are good.
It has the ability to adjust the ratio of light output of the left and right flash heads (not used yet).
You will need a stepping ring if you wish to attach the adapter ring, that the flash heads can attach to, to any of the legacy Olympus lenses. The legacy lenses have a 49mm thread whereas the adapter ring has a 67mm thread.

The manual mode produced the best results at the weekend, rather than the TTL mode (unsure if this is because I am using legacy macro lenses instead of digital ones or not yet got the right set up in the EM5 camera), and with more hits than misses. So far so good.

In addition to testing the Olympus FS-STF22 twin flash I also added the Olympus 25mm extension tube to the 65-116 auto telescopic tube on the Sunday. This was with the intent of bridging the gap in magnification range between the highest magnification range of the Olympus 80mm F4 macro lens of 1.2x and the lowest magnification range of the next lens up, the Olympus 38mm F2.8, of 3.1x.

The subjects of the field test where an assortment of insects at Whitemill

Bee shots

Solitary Bees (Andrena)