 Justin G. |
Good manual flash w/ PC terminal Hey guys I just got a new (to me) camera last night and it's fully manual and fully mechanical. It has a PC terminal (terminology?) on the lens to hook up a flash. Could anyone tell me a good flash that might help me with portraits (my house is really dark and even an ISO of 200 at f/2.8 usually gave me speeds of like 1/2). Also would I need any special cords or connectors or anything? What I'm thinking is that I just get a Metz flash and would there be a cord I plug in from the flash to the PC terminal? Thanks.
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robert G. Fately |
I would suggest the venerable Vivitar 283 flash, Justin. Those things have been around for 20 years or so (though I think they're still available new - I bought one 4 years ago). They're powerful and have an automatic setting where you set your lens to a selected aperture and the sensor in the flash head regulates the light output. While it uses a hot shoe, the 283 comes with the necessary PC cord. Hope that helps.
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Justin G. |
Thanks Bob it sure does. Now the camera has a shoe mount but its not hot. It's just the mount. It doesn't have the little terminals. Will having a hot shoe flash effect anything or should I just put the flash in the shoe and connect the cable?
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Jon Close |
A "hot" shoe (with contacts/terminals) would fire the flash without needing the PC sync cord. Your camera has a "cold" shoe that simply holds the flash and requires connection with the PC sync cord to fire. Similar to the Vivitar 283 is the Sunpak 383 Super. It also comes with a PC sync cord.
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Justin G. |
Well what I was saying is that will putting a hot shoe flash on a cold shoe terminal be alright? I didn't know if the electricity from the hot shoe would affect anything on my camera or cold shoe because the camera is all metal.
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Kerry L. Walker |
Won't affect a thing.
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Justin G. |
Ok thank you. Do you have any recommendations as well Kerry, I know you shoot MF. So far the Vivitar 283 looks nice and the local pro shop has a used one for $50 I think that should get my by. Sound like a good deal as long as it looks good and works?
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Kerry L. Walker |
You won't go wrong with the 283. It is a good flash. It will work either in manual or, as stated above, in auto using the flash's sensor.
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