Leica SF 40 Flash

I took this picture on a Leica M11 monochrome in the middle of a moonless night—I was using a 50mm f/0.95 wide open with a colored glass filter that cost me 2 stops of light. I set it to TTL and this is the first shot. He’s not a professional model and was pretty hesitant to have his picture taken but when he saw how good he looked he agreed to let me do a studio shoot later.But the point is when you have time pressure and have to rely on TTL (which frankly in the last ~30 years as a photographer I haven’t used TTL since this year (2023). And I’ve been impressed with how well the TTL works.. if just *does*So for studio work I use profoto strobes—B1’s D2’s some ancient ones with raw exposed bulbs that are still awesome but when I’m on the road or doing just street photography and circumstances prevent me from using natural light, I’ve been using this. And I like it and recommend it.

Through the lens flash. Q3 is a low light camera but if you want flash, this is great. A little large for the Q3 but it's balanced, this is only my opinion. Pricey but love Leica.

Works like it should especially for such a small unit, but is way overpriced. Made not particularly well, wonder how long will last. If it doesn’t last through a lot of use, I will be very disappointed given its outrageous price!

I got this flash for my overpriced camera. It works perfectly. But it's a little pricey. If you have too much money and a Leica camera, this is the flash for you.

Love this flash! Now I have the perfect setup!

This flash is much smaller than I thought it would be, and that makes me happy. It works great on my M10, and is light and well balanced on top of the camera. Everything just works automatically, it's more or less idiot-proof. Just put it on the camera, set it to TTL mode, and turn it on. It fills well in daylight and has a lot of power for bouncing off the walls etc. This flash (SF-40) and the SF-60 (which is huge) are the ONLY two options that give you high speed sync with a Leica M or SL camera. I deduct one star from my review because there is no reason this flash should cost so much; it's a flimsy piece of plastic just like any other $50 flash. I'm very frustrated that Leica has not let anyone else make third-party TTL and HSS enabled flashes for their cameras, it's a total racket. It is to the detriment of Leica owners that we have no other options than the SF-40 and the SF-60. If you don't need high speed sync, I would recommend instead getting an old used thyristor-based automatic flash for $20. They're not that hard to figure out and they give you exposures that are just as accurate as the SF-40.