Fujifilm EF-42 Flash Review

In my past experience using Pentax DSLR system, I've invested in a AF FGZ-360 flash unit which was the most economical flash unit available by Pentax. It had one major flaw, which was that I was unable to swivel the flash head, making it impossible to do bounce flash portraits. Pentax has recently resolved this with the FGZ-360 MkII, but I have since sold the flash (and the Pentax DSLR) and gotten myself an RM250 YongNuo YN-560II.

Now that I have switched to Fujifilm, I have found that whilst using the YongNuo in manual mode works, but it is a rather time consuming process when setting up a shot. Often, I would spoil a shot due to over exposed or under exposed photos. As I shot events quite often, I decided that I needed a flash with TTL mode and plus the fact it would be great to have two external flash for that home studio setup I do once in a while. The only Fujifilm flash that fits the bill is the Fujifilm EF-42.

Read on to see my real life experience of using the Fujifilm EF-42 and the pros and cons of this flash.

Nice and Small

The first thing I notice about the flash is the nice box that it comes in. The signature black that makes it right at home with the other X-camera and lens boxes. And it's surprisingly small (much smaller than my YN-560II, but around the size of the Pentax FGZ-360). Built wise, there is a lot of plastics involved here, even the hot shoe mount, but it is light and looks sturdy enough.

It actually fits rather nicely on my X-M1 in my opinion, even though my camera is already the smallest in the X-interchangeable family.

Small little fella he is.

Back to Basics

Operating the flash is really simple. One may feel it's too simple, especially in this time and age where we have some many features we can expect in an external flash. While that is true, the price of these flash costs two or three times more than the Fujifilm EF-42. Simplicity may not be a bad thing at all actually, especially if it just works. 

What you will get from the flash:

• TTL flash which is the greatest reason to spend more than double for a YongNuo flash.
• Tilt (90 degrees) and swivel (300 degrees). The swivel function covers a wider range than my YongNuo 560II in which I can bounce flash a little backwards in portrait.
• Ability to select focal length or have it automatically detect. You can select either 35mm or APS-C focal length. It will accept anything from 17mm to 70mm APS-C lenses (which are what the XF and XC lenses all are) with the option to extend to 13mm using the built-in diffuser.
• Ability to increase and decrease exposure by half steps, from -1.5, -1.0, -0.5, 0, +0.5, +1.0, +1.5.
• Ability to shoot in full manual mode (duh!).
• Auto standby and on when camera is turned off and on.
• Slow synch mode (when in P or A mode) controlled on the camera body (and Q menu).
• Front/rear curtain sync controlled on the camera body (and Q menu). By default, it is front curtain sync.
• Red backlight for LCD reading, which I would have preferred something more traditional like green (easier on the eyes).

I can peek just a little bit more to the back than you!

What you won't get:

• High speed sync
• Wireless trigger (not even optical). Yes, unfortunately, the camera Commander flash mode is useless with this flash.

Usage

Using the flash on my X-M1 is very easy. Simply slide it into the hot shoe and turn on the flash and camera. The camera will automatically detect the flash. When you turn off the camera, the flash goes to standby conveniently too. It also automatically detects the focal length of your lenses but does not change focal length when you put in a manual lens, even though the focal length is manually set on the camera.

When you first start the flash, it takes awhile to charge the flash up before you can start using it. It takes less than a minute. If it takes longer, then you will need to change your batteries. Upon flash release, the flash will recycle reasonably fast, but not as fast as my YongNuo. During recycle period however, the camera goes into a mode where you cannot autofocus or press the shutter. On my Pentax, there was an option to allow a user to allow this and would be useful in times where you may shoot without flash but use Lightroom to save the photo if you used RAW or to make it into some retro black and white shot.

One important thing to note here. If you find that the time between shooting and viewing your photo takes strangely long, the reason is because the camera does auto red-eye reduction for all the photos. Yes, even if there is no red eyes! I turned off the feature on the menu and shooting and viewing is back to normal speed.

TTL

With the EF42, you get full TTL metering. The accuracy of the TTL is very good for both direct and bounce flash. You can use it on any mode, including Manual.

When using Auto ISO, the camera will select the ISO to fit the ambient light so you may want to use a fixed ISO depending on the situation. I found that using Auto ISO normally screws up my white balance so I prefer to just fix it.

Shot using my XF18mm with direct TTL flash. Would have been ideal if I had an umbrella but the TTL did a pretty good job even with a direct shoot.

This photo was taken with bounce to the ceiling.

Studio setup

The flash also provides me with the opportunity to use it as a strobe on my humble little studio setup (two shoot through umbrellas). What I liked about the EF42 is that when set to manual, it doesn't automatically sleep and this allows continuous shooting without worrying that you need to meddle with the flash after a few minutes to wake it up. This was a bad issue on the Pentax FGZ360 flash and my YongNuo also goes to power saving after a few minutes but not as bad as the Pentax.

It worked well with my el-cheapo JJC transmitter and receiver as an all manual wireless strobe. 

Shot using both EF42 and YongNuo 560II as strobes with the XF 35mm. Had no model, so that's yours truly. One thing I really wish for my X-M1 is to have WiFi shooting. Would make self portraits and group portraits with me in it much easier!

Also shot using the two umbrella setup. Used my old Tamron Adaptall 70-210mm f3.5 (19AH) for this one.

Take note that on my X-M1, when using manual mode upon pressing half shutter, the screen will display the actual metered photo (and in studio setup, that means a blank screen). On the X-T1 that I tried recently, you have an option to disable this.

Other Modes

The flash also has a slow synchro mode and rear curtain mode which is controlled on the camera body. 

Slow synchro mode is only available in A or P mode, and works only in dimly lit locations. When in normal flash mode, the flash will use the minimum shutter speed as set by the AutoISO settings, but when in Slow synchro mode, the flash will use a much lower shutter speed (like 1/27sec instead of 1/80sec).

Make dreamy photos  out of everyday objects using Slow synchro mode (or simply use Manual or Shutter priority and lower your shutter speed)

Rear curtain sync will allow you to freeze the last bit of action instead of the first bit of action, and is useful for pan shots. I couldn't find a moving subject so I guess you'll just have to Google if you are really keen to know what a rear curtain sync flash photo looks like.

Summary

All in all, I'm really pleased with the flash. It's doesn't have all the bells and whistles of more flashy flashes (pun intended) of the Canikon, but it works pretty well for me and is useful for events and simple studio setups. I'm also sure Fujifilm will be making an update to this flash to match the competition in the professional realm. For the time being, semi-pros and amateurs will still find this a value for money purchase. Now, I really wish that Fujifilm will update my X-M1 camera firmware to enable WiFi shooting though, will really help those self portraits!

Pros:

• Very simple to use. Standby when it needs to (when camera is turned off) and keeps on when it needs to (when using as a wireless camera strobe in manual mode with external triggers).
• Small and light enough to look balanced on my X-M1.
• Accurate TTL for both bounce and direct flash.

Cons:

• Would have preferred one more button for selection (back and forth) instead of cycling through all options using just one SEL button.
• Can't shoot until fully charged. Bad if you use full power as it will render your camera frozen for a few seconds.
• Could have done with a metal hot shoe mount.
• The Commander mode on the camera doesn't work with this flash although it is currently the top of the range model. 

If you liked my article here, don't forget to check out my reviews on the XF18mm, XF35mm, XC16-50mm and the Samyang 8mm fisheye lens! Also, if any you find any ad on this blog interesting, do support me by clicking and visiting the advertisers. Thanks and till next time!