vivitar 2800 help

Hi,all!

 

I got the subject with the entire kit and have a few questions.

 

When using an 35mm adapter(and 35mm lens)do I need to open up to 2.8(in stead

of 4 - when using blue mode) or justsetting the iso to the 35mm dot enough?

 

Does the thrystor work well when bouncing of walls\ceilings?

 

thanks,

Mike

I have this unit, but seldom use it, and don't travel with it, as I rarely use flash. I bought it for $5 used. The thyristor will read the light and adjust accordingly whether used "straight" or bounced. It's up to you to adjust the aperture based on your experience.

Actually, just to be nitpicky, the thyristor is the silicon controlled rectifier that cuts the flash off when needed, rather than the light sensor that tells the thyristor when to do it. But yes, the auto exposure system on the flash will work when bounced, as long as the flash is capable of putting more light on the subject than it needs. The system works by shortening the flash duration. If there isn't enough light at max output, it can't lengthen it.

 

On this Amazon page, you'll find a link to the instruction manual in PDF form, but it opens in a special window with no save function, but you might be able to print it, and it might be possible to retrieve it from the browser cache.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Vivitar-2800-Automatic-Electronic-Flash/dp/B00004TVSQ

 

If you're using an older flash with a newer digital camera, you'd be wise to check the trigger voltage.

With regard to the manual linked above. If you have Firefox as your browser, go to the URL window and type "about:cache" and then go to the disk cache. There you'll find the cached copy of the PDF file. It will still not open properly in Adobe acrobat as it stands, because it is a link to the web site, rather than the file itself, but if you open that link in a separate tab, you will get a normal "file save as" function, and it will save the PDF properly.