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HVL-F58AM Hidden Settings; ..... DO AT YOUR OWN RISK !
Topic Started: Feb 18 2009, 09:31 PM (181 Views)
tankm
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Always Newbie
Original source here ... http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1037&message=31036854

DO AT YOUR OWN RISK !!!

Quote:
 
Hey Everyone,
Just bought my new toy a couple of weeks ago, I'm so in love ;D
Anyway, now about the topic!

Since I got the flash, I keep reading all the Strobist posts over and over again.
I've read them before, but not as intensly.
Today I tried to do a landscape frame, I had thought out rather nicely.
Crank up the flash to overpower the ambient...
Well :D

I guess I thought my strobe could do way more than just adding a little speck of light to the picture in the mid-day, sunny and snowy (like a giant softbox ^^) conditions.

Back home I remembered reading about David Hobby killing an SB-800 by accessing the diagnose mode and being able to go from normal 60 Ws to 900 Ws.
I looked it up again and thought I'd try the same button sequence.
Bad luck though.

I whined (:D) for a minute and tried some other button sequences.
Voila.
Got access to a settings menu.
And guess what?
There is an entry that looks as if (it's not really self-explainatory)
its for giving you a higher Ws-flash than the normal 60 Ws.


ATTENTION: I DO NOT TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS TO YOU OR THE STROBE IN CASE YOU USE THE DESCRIBED HIDDEN SETTINGS MENU.

All of the things I write here are not verified so don't take my opinion as it is and question! I want your thoughts on what some of the menus are there for.
But lets put it in order:
There are 9 entries in the Menu.
They are called "Ad ##".

You can navigate through the menus with the 4 directon buttons and the Fn button to apply your changes.


Ad 01
This is where you can use (at least thats my thought on it) a higher Ws output.
When you open the hidden settings menu, this entry comes up first.
Pushing the Fn button, the display shows the number 250.
Pressing it again and the flash pops once and the 250 blinks.

After that, pressing the Fn button will increase the number to 289 first and then to 330 and after another Fn click you'll end up in at the start of Ad 01 again.

When the display shows 289 or 330, the test button light is yellow, indicating you can fire the flash at the displayed rating
Ad 02
One press of Fn and the Zoom Text is showing.

Another pushing and the Bulb Zoom does some weird noise (like constant zooming of the flash coverage) for 2 or 3 seconds while the display blinks up "Adj" and then it shows "End".
Another Fn and your back to the root menu.

Ad 03
Press Fn and it'll light up the "level" tag in the display.

Another press and underneath "Level" there comes up "1/16" and in the lower part of the display there is a zero blinking, which you can adjust with the up/down arrows from -10 to +10.

Press Fn again and you'll set your changes and go on to the "1/2" setting. Same process here.
Another Fn and your again back to the home menu.

Ad 04
Fn and the display lights up the "HSS" label.

Another Fn and another adjustment (adjusting what?) thing comes up ranging from, again, -10 to +10.
Fn brings you back to the menu.

Ad 05
Fn and the name "LCD" ligths up in the bottom display.
Another Fn and all of the displaying elements of the LCD are being lighted up.
This is probably to check if the display is screwed or so.
Fn and your back.

Ad 06
Fn will light up "AF" on the screen.
another Fn will give you two blinking options: On and Off.

Strangely, another Fn will only disable the up/down arrows on the left and the two options are still selectable by clicking on the up/down arrows.
Fn again to get back to the main menu.

Ad 07

Press Fn and it will show a number. I guess its kind of a production/ revison kinda number. Or maybe even some regional code ( if its an US/ Europe/Asian market product?!).
Mine says 1.0100.
Fn and your free to choose again in the menu.

Ad 08

Pressing Fn will alter the display in a way that it doesn't read anymore "Ad 08" but EP 08" and below "InIt" or "1n1t". Clicking Fn again, the display after a second will show the word "End".
As always: Fn and your back.
I don't have any clue what that entry is supposed to do.

Ad 09
Now, this is the one that I don't get at all.
Probabbly one of you out there has some more knowledge of HEX codes and so on.
Pressing Fn will show "Ad dA" on the display and change "Ad 09" to "EP 09".
Another Fn and your able to choose from a huge variety of different codes.
Mine starts with "00 55" then "01 AA", "02 SC" (or "02 5C") and so on.
When you hit Fn it'll let you change the third character.

So in the last example, the "5" (or "S") starts blinking and I can go down to 4,3,2,1 and 0 or up til 9 then the letters of the HEX code go on: A,b,C,d,E,F.
Another Fn and your're back to the home menu.

Now, I took some pictures of the whole thing and posted them on flickr.
My username at flickr is w4yne.

Oh, nearly forgot the button sequence ;D
You gotta leave your flash turned off for about 20 to 30 seconds.

Probabbly till the capacitor has ended discharging through the resistor, but I'm not really sure.
What you do is simply holding down Mode and Zoom while you switch it on.

Simple as that. God bless Sony for not making us wait EXACTLY 60 seconds like the Nikon flashgun ;D
So thats it for today.
Regards from Germany, Jim



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Trigger Happy
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Alpha Jedi Member
i hope no one has itchy fingers to mess with it, reminds me of the 7D's diagnostic program to tweak the cam's settings. till today i've not felt crazy enough to go try it..
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jasahchun
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路人甲
thanks bro for sharing.. it's exciting and scary!!! =p

perhaps i think there won't be many people who will try it.. it's still an expensive equipment.. =)

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Trigger Happy
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Alpha Jedi Member
to tweak the cam for performance is one thing (of course if messed up it will be well... a mess!) but something like a strobe :sweat: best not to mess with it. at least we know the cam doesn't have components that may explode if pushed beyond spec.
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