Flash Question

[norters]

Hi. Firstly, sorry if this is a silly question When I bought my Minolta X300 the chap I bought it from was kind enough to include a flash unit, a Cobra CX150. Having never used a flash unit like this before I haven't really used it only checked that it works. It does. Anyway, being the inquisitive sort, I noticed a little plastic Halina camera I picked up at the car booty (50p!) had a hotshoe so I slid the flash unit in:



halina flashed by rednorters, on Flickr

I wound it on and clicked the shutter and was shocked when it actually went off! I also had it facing me and now have a dark spot in my eye! Spurred on by this I decided to see if it worked on the Trip:



trip flashed by rednorters, on Flickr

It does! My question is this...I won't harm my cameras by using it will I? And also, on the back of the flash is a diagram of what I assume are the sync speeds for when used with an SLR, however on the two cameras above there is not a great deal of manual control so I assume I just click away and take whatever the flash gives me?

Told you it was a silly question! Also, apologies for the poor quality pictures. Mobile telephone snaps

Thanks for reading.

 

[AlanSmithee]

I'd think the vintage of both the camera and flash go together just fine. It's modern cameras with old flashes you need to have some concern about the voltage.

I think you only have one sync speed with the camera at 1/40th in flash mode. And the diagram on the back of the flash gives camera aperture for distance and film speed.

 

[AJQS]

That flash appears to be a non auto model, so you'll need to refer to the table on the back and adjust it's power as necessary if it has the ability to do so. If it doesn't, then you'll need to match the aperture and film speed to what it says for the given distance as it only has one power setting. On old flashes like this there is no TTL communication of any sort, and the camera willfire it regardless of whether it's above sync speed or not (well maybe not all will but certainly every film SLR in my posession here will fire my flashes at 1/2000 or whatever the max may be, even though there's no chance of a proper exposure)

 

[offline]

As Tuco suggests, it's not a foolish question, some older flashes shouldn't be used through the hot shoe on delicate modern (& electronic) cameras. The trip has a fully mechanical shutter - and I'd imagine the halina is the same - so they'll be fine.

You leave the trip in A mode (set by rotating the metal ring on the len) in bright conditions, and set the aperture when you want to use the flash. The distance from the camera, the power of the flash and the iso of the film will determine what aperture you set, hopefully that's what the chart on the flash is. The trip always shoots at 1/40th second when you set the aperture manually. The f-stop you select is the maximum it will open up - if the camera detects there's enough ambient light it might not open up to the maximum but it will still shoot at 1/40 second.

I'd imagine (although I may be doing it a disservice) that the Halina is literally a point and click affair

 

[norters]

Thank you for the replies. Upon referring to the back of the flash unit I have a pretty solid understanding now of distances/aperture settings. I was more worried about harming the flash or the camera as the flash was given to me with a film SLR. I am going to try it out tomorrow on the Trip as it is my favourite of all my film cameras

You weren't doing the Halina a disservice at all! Through very exhaustive research the ONLY information I can gather about this particular model is that it is essentially a 'toy' camera! However, it makes perfectly acceptable images and now with the added flash I might be able to get a little bit more creative with it

Thanks again for the help. If I manage a roll tomorrow I will post up some of the images

 

[sparty]

I'd think the vintage of both the camera and flash go together just fine. It's modern cameras with old flashes you need to have some concern about the voltage.

I was given an old Vivitar 272 flash with an Olympus OM1. The camera is temporarily out of action but an OM10 has just fallen into my lap...
Is the flash also suitable with the OM10?

 

[excalibur2]

I was given an old Vivitar 272 flash with an Olympus OM1. The camera is temporarily out of action but an OM10 has just fallen into my lap...
Is the flash also suitable with the OM10?

erm according to this site it fires at 240v:-
http://www.botzilla.com/photo/strobeVolts.html

How tough are the flash contacts on the OM10 :shrug: for comparison e.g. non mechanical Canons are about 6v trigger volts.

 

[offline]

erm according to this site it fires at 240v:-
http://www.botzilla.com/photo/strobeVolts.html

How tough are the flash contacts on the OM10 :shrug: for comparison e.g. non mechanical Canons are about 6v trigger volts.

That's a scary flash, seems it takes some sort of 9 volt batteries too, so (although the OM1, OM10 and vivitar flash are all near contemporaries and I'm tempted to say they'll be fine), getting a flash that runs off AAs would be more practical* and more likely to be fine with any camera.

Offline

*although if we were only interested in practical, noone would be in this forum!

 

[sparty]

That's a scary flash, seems it takes some sort of 9 volt batteries too, so (although the OM1, OM10 and vivitar flash are all near contemporaries and I'm tempted to say they'll be fine), getting a flash that runs off AAs would be more practical* and more likely to be fine with any camera.

Offline

*although if we were only interested in practical, noone would be in this forum!

Yeah, it runs of two 9v batteries. It's a monster of a flash! Thanks for the replies.