Olympus FL-14 Flash for Olympus E-P1 Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera

by Olympus

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 1 x 4.1 x 5.4 inches ; 3 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B002CGSYMG
• Item model number: FL-14 Flash
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 15, 2009

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

The FL-14 is an easy-to-operate external flash with a design that matches the E-P1. With an equivalent GN (Guide Number) of 14, you can accomplish flash shooting with stable light and optimum brightness.

Product Description

OLYMPUS 260122 FL-14 Flash

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Looks awesome, performs as expected, May 24, 2010

By 

Jeremy Thornhill - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Olympus FL-14 Flash for Olympus E-P1 Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera (Electronics)

I'll put it bluntly: this is the smallest and weakest external flash gun I've ever seen. It should be obvious from the GN of 14 (barely better than my DSLR's popup) that this is absolutely *not* useful for serious flash work.

Rather, the Olympus FL-14 is aimed at a very specific market: E-P1 and E-P2 shooters who want to have some kind of flash capacity without lugging around a full-sized flash gun.

Considering its design goals, one can hardly complain; it matches perfectly with the PEN's retro styling and metallic highlights, and it looks totally natural on my E-P2. Its metal casing also makes it look and feel a cut above typical plastic encased units in terms of build quality. Indeed, if one cares about shooting with an attractive kit (and I must admit to being a complete sucker for this, hence my love affair with the PEN), this is absolutely your best option in a flash.

Performance is, well, what I'd expect from a GN 14 flash that runs on two AAA batteries. We're talking about pop-up quality and slow recycle time, neither of which should be any sort of surprise. The unit has 3 modes: TTL-auto, auto, and manual. TTL-auto is what you probably want, as it fires a pre-flash burst and meters the resulting scene through the lens to determine exposure. In practice this seems to be hit and miss for me, sometimes over or under exposing, requiring a bit of EV compensation. I'm reluctant to blame metering on the flash though; I assume that this is primarily a body limitation.

One *huge* negative for E-P2 owners is that using this (or any) external flash gun will prevent you from using your VF-2 viewfinder. This is really a shame, and it means you're stuck having to choose between viewfinder or flash.

So, who exactly should buy this thing?

For owners of a body with a pop-up flash (e.g. the E-PL1 (GN 7) or the GF1 (GN 6)), I can't really recommend it at all. Even though it's a bit more powerful than your pop-up and it won't sap your main batteries, why would you lug around such a marginal upgrade?

For the pragmatist E-P2 or E-P1 owner, who really needs an external flash of *some* kind, the price tag has to give you a bit of pause as well. If size and styling aren't critical to you, you should strongly consider the not-that-much-bigger Olympus FL-20 as a substantially cheaper, more powerful alternative.

If you've considered the other options, and you're OK with paying a premium for a tiny, sexy little flash, then the FL-14 exactly what you're looking for. As such, I am happy with the unit, but I recommend that you study its limitations and think long and hard about whether this is what you really want.

**** Update 05/2011 ****

I complemented this flash with an Olympus FL-36R. I bought the FL-36R hoping (but not knowing for sure) that the E-P2 with the FL-14 mounted could fire it wirelessly. Although I was sure I had this working in the past, I was recently unable to fire the other unit wirelessly. It seems that for wireless flash shooting, the fl14 just can't do the job.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Retro-styled flash, but weak!, September 17, 2009

By 

Michael A. Duvernois (Minneapolis, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Olympus FL-14 Flash for Olympus E-P1 Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera (Electronics)

The flash looks good on the E-P1 Olympus PEN camera, but it's pretty weak for an external flash. Okay, that said, if you like the look and feel for the PEN system, here is your flash. Do enjoy. It's as good or better than most point and shoot camera flashes but is small and dim compared to full sized SLR flashes. This keeps the kit small, but isn't as useful as a larger flash, so it's a tradeoff.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Olympus Flash, November 26, 2010

By 

Mark Shelley - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Olympus FL-14 Flash for Olympus E-P1 Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera (Electronics)

This flash unit for the Penn is small and easy to use. It switches on and off with the camera so saving the batteries and it defaults to TTL mode when attached to the shoe. Being small it does not have a big output so it's use is a bit limited. It is fine for party snaps or close in work but over 20ft forget it and take advantage of the Penn's low light capabilities. Also carry plenty of AAA batteries as they do not last long.