Metz mecablitz 52 AF-1

£274/$260 A mid-range flashgun for touchscreen fans

The Metz 52 looks like one of those flashguns that has no on-board controls, forcing you to spend more time tweaking things from menus in-camera. As it turns out, the lack of buttons and switches is due to the flashgun featuring a touchscreen with a logical and intuitive layout to its comprehensive menu system.

In other areas, the feature-set is typical for a mid-range flashgun at this price. There’s a Gn 52 power rating, an automated zoom range of 24-105mm and a 0-90 degree bounce. The range of the swivel action is less impressive, with 180 degrees to the left, but only 120 degrees to the right. Par for the course with mid-range flashguns, there’s no programmable repeat (stroboscopic) mode and wireless commander/slave functions are limited to infrared, rather than radio frequency connectivity.

Performance

Performance is good, not great, with mediocre max power output, slight but consistent TTL overexposure and sluggish recycling speeds. Even so, the Metz is capable and well built.

Power output

Compared with some of the most recent designs, this Metz flashgun is a little lacking when it comes to maximum output power.

TTL accuracy

You may need to dial in about half a stop of negative flash exposure compensation in TTL mode to ensure that exposures stay accurate.

Recycle speed

Recycling speeds on the Metz mecablitz 52 AF-1 tend to be a little slower than usual for a flashgun with a mid-range power rating.