Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site watcgl.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!watcgl!dmmartindale From: dmmartindale@watcgl.UUCP (Dave Martindale) Newsgroups: net.rec.photo Subject: Re: RE: Dedicated Flash Message-ID: <2129@watcgl.UUCP> Date: Thu, 16-Feb-84 03:06:31 EST Article-I.D.: watcgl.2129 Posted: Thu Feb 16 03:06:31 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 16-Feb-84 04:39:00 EST References: <330@hogpc.UUCP> Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario Lines: 23 When shopping for "dedicated" flashes, read the data sheets very carefully to see which "dedicated" features are actually supported. For example, I recently bought a Minolta X-570 and, shortly thereafter, a Minolta 360PX flash. When the camera is set at "A" and the flash at "TTL", then when the flash is charged: 1) the shutter speed is set to 1/60 automatically 2) the "60" LED in the finder blinks to indicate flash ready When the shutter is released: 3) the flash duration (and thus light output) is controlled by a photocell in the camera reading light off the film 4) If there was sufficient light for the shot, the "60" LED in the finder flashes rapidly for 1 second to indicate this. Now, any flash which implements any one of these features could probably claim to be "dedicated". In fact, Vivitar and Sunpak units implement features 1-3 - a respectable showing. But only Minolta flashes, of all those available, provide the sufficient-light indication in the finder. I considered this important enough to pay the extra money for the Minolta flash. (The fact that the Minolta had manual power output settable in 1/2 stop increments, and the simplest calculator dial I'd seen, didn't hurt any either.) So compare features very carefully.