Camera Labs

And the answer is no you cannot use the analog meter with flash, the cameras meter only can see the ambient light, at least until the flash is actually fired, or should I say pre-flash is fired.

The camera really doesn't have any real way to know exactly how reflective the subject is, it does not know if the flash is directly aimed at the subject or being bounced, so until it sees a reflective pre-flash it cannot judge what will be the "correct" amount of light or if that "correct" amount of light will be available for it to use.

Even then you never see what the flash "meter sees" only the result after the image is captured. Than you can make whatever adjustments you might need to make to improve the image.

It's me being an *d*ot and deleting them from my account by mistake