Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I have typically bought an external flash to supplement the internal flash.

Canon and Nikon have entry level external flashes that are very good, offering bounce features (the ability to point the flash upwards so you subject gets indirect flash light) and very good integration with their cameras.

The Olympus FL-14 falls short compared to competitive offerings. No bounce ability. It tends to brutally overexpose out of the box. I guess for the Pen cameras without a built-in flash it is the easy choice (but I would research the market for compatible flashes with bounce, or go one up the Olympus range), for E-PL1 owners - avoid it: the built-in flash is better and more flexible.

It is very overpriced for the value add and performance it seems to provide.

Normal flash that is cute, light and compact. Works pretty nice and goes perfect for the camera it was intended.

It's as good as any of the flashes normally built into a DSLR. Pretty good, but nothing spectacular.

In view of the pen's performance at high ISO's, this flash is minimally useful. Still, fill-flash can come in handy .

light index is a bit low for a external flash, more like a build-in flash. but it's size is great, and it uses 2 AAA battery. The build quality is nice but it's not very durable as the silver metal casing is very thin and easily dimpled, specially on the bottom side of the actual light unit. The thin silver metal portion of mine has bended inside. the auto mood of the flash gives way too bright flash, i just use the TTL which is a bit in the bright side also, I usually dial down the flash a step. The auto white balance is not working when attaching the flash, need to manually set to flash mode. over all it's a good little flash, some people even loved the look of it attached. But I think there should be one build-in. used on EP-1.

This flash looks nice but the quality of the pictures is just okay (more like with a P & S camera's flash). Also, it drains batteries very quickly so make sure to invest in rechargeables right away (we bought 6 (you only really need 4, so you always have 2 charged up) rechargeable batteries and a charger for $35; the 6 Duracells we went through in the first few days cost $12, so invest in the rechargeables right away to save money). Although the flash isn't the best flash out there, it's probably the best one for the Olympus E-P1 (at least looks-wise), so for $99, I'd recommend getting it.

TTL function works as it should. Easy to use and works as it should. A required device for the Olympus Pen camera.