Exposure vs Shutter Speed

Miss Annette, I once owned a Vivitar 283. Due to the uncertainty of the voltage, I gave the 283 away when I bought my Nikon D80. I then bought two used Nikon SB24 Speedlights. Now my four primary Nikon Speedlights are the Nikon SB80DX, Introduced in 2002. I continue to use the SB80DX with my full-frame Nikon camera.

The SB80DX has a built-in slave unit, which functions perfectly if the distance from another flash is not too great. The SB80DX also has secondary built-in defusing and flash-bounce features, and a model-specific diffuser dome is also available. With re-chargeable batteries, the Speedlights have always performed perfectly. It is very important to have the Speedlight user manual with you to learn and remember the settings. I also use radio triggers to fire the Speedlights, often adding umbrellas or soft boxes.

The SB-80DX has one drawback when used off-camera and in Auto-aperture mode; it's only possible to change the ISO speed immediately after the speedlight is switched on. It shares this silly restriction with the SB-28 and anything more recent.

Since the SB-24 and earlier speedlights have no pull-out diffuser or catchlight card, to my mind that makes the SB-25 and SB-26 the 'sweet spot' of pre i-TTL Nikon flashes. There's no menu mining required to get to any function, and the user interface is straightforward enough that you don't need to refer to the manual all the time.

Flash power of the SB-25 and 26 is equal to any of Nikon's subsequent top line speedlights.

rodeo_joe, Thanks for joining this conversation, as your comments bring more flash considerations for anyone following this thread. At the time that I chose the SB-80dx it made sense, and still does for photographing interiors.

I shoot from a tripod, typically setting my camera at its base iso, and the speedlights as low as 1/8 power. I also use a Paul C. Buff White Lightning as a key light when needed.

As you know, controlling window light is often more about subtracting and diffusing light. Soon I would like to consider adding remote control electronics to the lighting mix.

Yeah, not sure why Nikon made the 'select' button practically useless from the SB-28 onwards.

I can see they were trying to make on-camera flash more fully automated, but removing manually selectable features for off-camera use was just stupid and annoying.

Ah well, I suppose there are enough used speedlights out there that everyone can take their pick of the features and modes they find most useful.

Used D200 prices should be low enough now, and that allows metering with AI lenses.

Otherwise, a D700 for $600 is also a good deal, and will allow M or A mode with AI lenses.

This will allow the OP to mostly work the way she is used to, with Nikon film SLRs.

If those lines on your photos are on every photo, you have something on your sensor. You have to be careful with digital camera. Dirty sensors were a big problem until they came with covers when the lens was removed.

If you are using a Vivitar 283 flash, depending on the age (they were made for many years) the flash voltage could fry the flash electronics. The voltage of the flash from positive (center contact) to negative (side contact) was sometimes 300V. Those flashes were made for some 20+ years. Nikon says the contacts are good for 250v. There is a device that fits between the flash and camera that drops the contact voltage to some tiny voltage. But that makes the distance from the top of the flash to the adapter longer. That could make any strain at the attachment points very high and break something if you hit the flash sideways.

Mike. This thread was started 9 months ago. I don't think reviving and adding to it now is going to help the OP.

From the user profile:

'miss.annette_leigh_haynes was last seen: Jan 29, 2018'

I'm not following your comment about not having a 28mm or 50mm setting. Zooms are more or less infinitely variable. Even if the setting isn't marked on the ring, you can still set the ring to any position between. Most lenses will even register small changes in the zoom setting.

 

(snip)

I have a lens that is either 28mm or 35mm, but nothing in between.

I think that means it isn't zoom, but still has two focal lengths.

N/AI mount.

What!?

This is just getting weird now.