Wanted: manual flashes

I'm looking for some inexpensive flashes with manual control to use whilst I experiment with off camera flash. Not bothered about brand but they must be fully functional, have manual power settings & a trigger voltage of under 12v.

If anybody has anything suitable they want to get shot of then PM me with details & price please.

Thanks for looking.

Bob

Charity shops are your friend Rob. I got a nice Hanimex for a fiver and missed a bargain Vivitar 283 for not much but I did get all the accessories for a fiver.

Some shops won't resell electrical stuff at all but others like the YMCA shops will.

To fire them I bought the 16 quid wireless trigger from the shop on this site and it's fine. When I got a second gun I bought an optical slave device at 8 quid. You'll want the flash off camera anyway.

The Vivitar 283/5 plus it's manual output accessory is a great gun, powerful and the plug in manual thingy lets you adjust the output from full to one 64th power.

Mike

Mike

I've checked various charity shops in the area & they never have any photographic stuff the 283's & older 285's have a trigger voltage of well over 200v & would fry the wireless triggers I've ordered I think.

Which triggers did you order? Most seem to be OK for higher voltages.

I'll keep an eye open round here for any flash units going cheap. I now have three I really don't need any more

I think (and you need to check) the 283's made in Vietnam are low voltage. I measured mine and it's 300 v

Mike

Cheap set of PT-04's from ebay, budget way in really, if I get good results then I can always upgrade & sell these on.

It's a bit confusing to be honest as the ad states flashes under 12v trigger voltage only, but goes on to say older 283 & 285's to be used by pc sync only. I would have thought they are straight wired to the hotshoe though so would expect to fry the reciever.

edit: found a few voltages here

I think I use a PT-04 I'll check and see. Nothing has fried yet. It seemed to me there was only one manufacturer of the cheapies in any case and a whole load of repackaging went on.

Mike

The AF-500 FTZ I have is superb, it really is. It's my first flash gun, and by being manual it is teaching me important lessons that's for sure.

I made the mistake that all pt-04's were equal but it seems there are various versions and each incarnation is a little different. Early ones could take high voltages & the 2nd versions only 12v, it's a bit of a minefield really, but granted they are cheap

I have a sigma 530dg super which is great, but I've bought the 3 reciever set so was hoping to pick up a couple of manual only units to accompany it.

I'm sorry I seem to have hijacked your thread but I looked at an enormous car boot sale today and there were only two guns one a Nikon which looked very old and another one that didn't seem to have a manual setting.

There were two collections of old SMC lenses and other make lenses in PK mounts. Mostly old non Pentax zooms which I'm guessing are of indifferent quality and totally manual although I seemed to recall a Vivitar manual zoom with macro was well thought of.

Mike

PS No competition entry?

One of the lesser Pentax AF200/200t/200sa guns (can't remember which) has manual control down to 1/4 or 1/8 power and should be low voltage. No bounce or tilt head though.

PM sent RR