News Flash

I’ve wanted to upgrade my Nikon D70’s flash, but the dedicated Nikon flashes are crazy expensive. Despite the technological superiority of the various TTL flash technologies, I’ve always been pretty happy with the results from a thyristor flash.

I have a Vivitar 285HV, a huge honking non-dedicated flash with a guide number measured in miles. You could paint the moon with this thing. It’s got 3 auto ranges, power settings, bounce, and a zoom head. I tested the voltage off the hot shoe, and it came in at 5.4 volts - less than the 6 or 25 or 250 volts (depending on where you read) that electronic camera’s hot shoes can take.

It’s not dedicated, you need to shoot manual and set the camera yourself. By using an auto-zone, you set the aperture to what the flash tells you to, and pick any shutter speed under 1/500th second.

Digital is a great medium for flash photography - chimp the photo; if you need to reshoot you can adjust on the fly.

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