Apr 05, 2007 05:21 PM
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*Introduction:
*This is a general purpose yet very powerful flash providing many useful features which can be used for many different purposes. Despite its high power and advanced features its cost is not that much. I've used these flashes for many years without any problem. Lets see what are its capabilities.
The flash has "Auto Thyristor circuitry" giving a fast recycle time and a high number of flashes per set of batteries.
*Features:
Guide number:*
Provides a powerful guide number(GN) of 120 feet @ ISO 100. Means if you set your camera's aperture at f2.8, then it has a capacity to illuminate subject upto 42 feet.(GN 120 / f2.8 = range). To get an idea, try to find out what is the flash GN provided by todays digital cameras and I'm sure you will laugh! For example Nikon F80 camera's flash guide number is 40 feet! Again todays digital cameras misguide customers by providing GNs at higher ISO's typically as ISO 400. So, this flash can literally cover farther subjects as well.
Easy dial to set ISO speed:
There is a dial using one can find range for each ISO setting. Means what aperture covers what range at various ISO speeds. This is just a dial does not affect the flash burst at all.
*Knob to set the aperture:
*The circular knob at front has a various color coded settings giving various ranges. The "Manual"(white) setting outputs the full power. So, you set the aperture at your camera and then change the knob according to the color for the given range.
Power:
Accepts four AA batteries. Also accepts an optional SB-4 110-volt AC adapter.
Hot shoe:
Can be be fixed on any camera having hot shoe mount. Can also be triggered via the sync cable which one has to connect to PC terminal of the respective camera.
*Bounce head:
*Head can be tilted towards ceiling for bounce flash effect. Very useful for producing soft lighting(shadow less) effect. Note that it can NOT be panned to left or right.
*Misc features:
*It also has autocheck to test your flash exposure. If it lights green, then exposure is ok else not, like that.
Has a sufficient-light indicator showing when the flash is ready to fire.
Illuminated calculator dial to show the settings in dark.
Optional accessories:
VP-1(Vari Power) - Lets you control flash duration to 1/32 power. The Flash duration at full power i.e. at 1/1 is 1/1000 of a second. Using VP-1 one can reduce this duration to 1/32 i.e. 1/30000 of a second. All those photos showing a breaking baloon, crown created by a water drop, frozen wings of a bird etc are taken using such high speed flash techniques. This is the most important feature of this flash!
Slave:
There is a terminal for inserting a slave unit. This is useful if one want to fire multiple flashes at a time remotely i.e. without cables. So, putting a penut slave in this terminal will let you use this flash to fire remotly when another flash gets fired!
Color filters - To paint your subject with different color.
*Sample photos:
*The attached hummingbird photo is a 1st prize winner photo taken with this flash. Note that hummingbird beats his wings at around minimum 60 times per second to maximum 250 times per second! And this wings are frozen with this flash!
Photo is here: https://birdsofearth.com/samp_img/hum.jpg
A word of caution: Its a high power flash which can damage certain cameras with its high voltage. Please check if its compatible with your camera or not first.
*Summary:
*A veru useful and low cost flash for most 35mm manual focus cameras. Very useful for general photography as well as high-speed flash photography at very low cost. The lighting produced is of professional quality .
