flash's and lenses for for E 400

[greg_holland]

just bought an E 400 and i was wondering which flashes would be compatible for

this camera, i use the camera for inside shots at live musical performances.

 

also can anyone recomend a fish eye lens that would be compatible with this camera.

 

regards

Greg

[richsimmons]

You got three choices for flashes from Olympus. The FL-50 $400 US, the Fl-36 $200 US, and the FL-20 (not sure how much this costs).

 

You can see all the lenses that fit by going to

 

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/shop/13148/Digital_SLR_Interchangeable_Lenses_for_4_3rds_System.html

[glenbarrington]

I am a great proponent of the older flash technology that flash units like the SunPak 383 and the Vivitar 285HD represent. They are inexpensive, powerful, versatile, provide reliable service and make excellent, well exposed photos. I paid $79 USD for my Sunpack 383 from B&H about 3 months ago.

 

What a lot of people don't realize is that these Thyristor based units are semi-automatic flash units. How it works is as follows.

 

1) you set your camera to manual exposure, and set your ISO on camera.

 

2) You set the ISO on the flash unit and it will give you a choice of 3 or 4 f/stop settings(the aperture) and the distances that the flash will be effective at that f/stop.

 

3) You set the aperture (f/stop) on the camera and then set the camera's shutter to the fastest stutter speed that will synchronize with flash units. (In your camera manual).

 

4) Start taking pictures. The thyristor acts as a light meter and when it calculates that adequate light has hit the subject, it shuts the flash down. (calculations based on f/stop, distance and ISO settings).

 

On the 383, even bounce flash is well exposed because the thyristor window always points forward. So if you point the flash head to the ceiling for a more natural light, the thyristor window is still aimed at the subject.

 

True, they are not foolproof, but very little in this life IS foolproof (Including the FULL Auto Flash units). So you do need to practice a bit before shooting something important.

 

These things work great and I think the Sunpack 383 is one of the best. Many wedding and commercial photographers use them because they are reliable, powerful, cheap, and they work with ANY camera that can manually set the f/stop and shutter speed. Hope this helps.

[skip_williams]

The Olympus TTL flashes are much nicer for light balancing and "fugitaboutit" operation, but older, thyristor-type flashes are very capable and very cheap. The big advantage today vs. 10-15 years ago is that you can use the digital camera's review feature to check you flash exposure and get the balancing right by tweaking and balancing: 1) the flash power output, 2) aperture, and 3) camera ISO setting.

 

In many ways, I hate today's "you-have-to-use-my-flash-or-else" mentality of the camera makers. I'm sure that dedicated flashes are HUGE money-makers for Olympus, etc. There are only a few premium flash makers in Japan and I doubt whether any of the camera makers make their own flashes. They just design the proprietary circuitry and get one of those guys to OEM it for them.

 

Skip

[skip_williams]

Oh, about the fisheye - There's only one, the Zuiko Digital 8mm f/3.5 lens, which runs about $6-700.

 

Of course, there are copious numbers of cheap, screw-on, fisheye adapters that will give you the same effect, but the images' technical quality suffers a lot.

 

Third - About your shooting at inside music shows, IMO it will look much nicer if you learn to shoot with ambient lighting. Flash tends to look very harsh at dark performances.

 

Skip

[greg_holland]

ive been looking at some olympus flahses and being quite new to this game i was led to believe i may have to use an olympus flash. if the hot shoe is standard, can i use different flashes? ive been told about metz flashes but i will check out the Sunpack 383. do i need to get a flash which will sync up to my camera system?

 

cheers

[glenbarrington]

The thing is, each manufacturer makes a 'semi-standard' hot shoe. The larger center contact is standard so non proprietary flashes can be used, but the smaller contacts around it are not standard. Even if they do happen to be in the same place, they may not carry the same type of signal.

 

The auto-thyristor flashes work very well and since they use only the standard center contact, you don't need to worry about getting a special type.

 

One note though, do NOT buy a used older thyristor flash unit. Buy only new. The reason is older units use a higher voltage than modern cameras can handle. An older unit may burn out a modern camera, so don't let an attractively priced older model tempt you. (New cameras under 12 volts max, older cameras didn't matter)

 

Wein and a few other manufuacturers sell a voltage regulator so you can safely use older flash units (about $50 USD), but I have found that new units work quite well on new cameras. I use my 383 on my E500 without a voltage regulator.