Vivitar 283 flash Gun and Fuji.
 

I have a Fuji S9500 digital camera and I have just acquired a Vivitar 283 flash gun, made in China and apparently it has a 6Volt trigger voltage, so it should be safe for digital cameras.

Thing is I’m not sure on how to set them up to work with each other.
Anyone got any suggestions? (KSH ;) )

Re: Vivitar 283 flash Gun and Fuji.
 

No but good choice of camera mate....i've aquired a 9500 myself and i must say i'm impressed!!

Re: Vivitar 283 flash Gun and Fuji.
 

I’m still trying to get to grips with it.

Re: Vivitar 283 flash Gun and Fuji.
 

Hi Len, Yeah your Ok with that as long as it is made in China, they range from 6v to 12v trigger voltage, Japan made ones though go to about 600v and will fry most digital camera's, Fuji 9500's can handle a trigger voltage up to 400v.
1 Thing you will have to remember is they are not dedicated flash's so wont work like the internal one, you will have to set it manually and usually point it up about 45 degrees or even straight up and bounce off the ceiling, it all depends what kind of effect you are after, you will be better with a diffuser on it as well as these are very powerful flash guns, they can be got for about £8 - £12 mines a stofen. Unless you are taking a photo of something about 100feet away you will rarely use it straight on as it will blow everything out and will just end up with a white image.
How to use, did you get a manual? if not i'll do you a copy of one (if I can find it!)
set the asa the same as the iso you are using, select or view the aperture setting on the camera, look up your setting on the flash'd dial and it will have a colour band over it - set the thyristor to that colour and your done
Sounds complicated but it isn't, trial and error is a good way of learning it, try it, you wont break owt
Let me know if you need more help.
How you liking the camera - and you wingy
You'll probably find like i did that its not a very good fully auto camera, you'll soon be into manual to get the pics you want

Re: Vivitar 283 flash Gun and Fuji.
 

I have manuals for both the camera and the flash gun.
I am hoping to use the camera in doors, Accyweb meetings etc.

In the Fuji manual it says I can use external flash in P.S.A.M modes which means…. not a lot to me.

At the moment I’m trying it in P mode and I have the iso set at 80 or should that be higher around 200 iso.

Re: Vivitar 283 flash Gun and Fuji.
 

I found that the built in flash on the S9500 is a bit weak compared to my compact Olympus Camedia C-3020 Zoom., this is why I decided to get myself an add on flash.
I had to laugh thou, as I hadn’t realized the size of the flash gun. Hehe
I got it off Ebay.

Re: Vivitar 283 flash Gun and Fuji.
 

I bet it is as big as the camera

Re: Vivitar 283 flash Gun and Fuji.
 

Yeah it has to be one of those, ie you cant use it in auto mode
p = programmed auto
s = shutter priority
a = aperture priority
m = full manual
For 80 iso you will need good lighting, I always keep mine on 80 unless the light is a bit low then i change it accordingly, 200's a good average and I haven't used above 400 as the pics get to grainy then.
Have you been trying facing the flash at the subject? it wont work, not even on the lowest flash setting, point it upwards and bounce the flash off the ceiling - you'll see what i mean

Re: Vivitar 283 flash Gun and Fuji.
 

Not quite but its getting there lol, i've tested this at around 80ft and it works very well

Re: Vivitar 283 flash Gun and Fuji.
 

I didn't think the flash was too bad and good enough for around 12 ft
You can turn the flash up, just had a look in the book for you and its page 69

Re: Vivitar 283 flash Gun and Fuji.
 

I’m afraid that I can’t do anymore tests as my batteries have now gone flat and will now need charging. ******.

I have only used my camera in Auto mode and never used any of the other modes. I was trying the flash adjustments in P mode when the battery went flat. I see that you can’t adjust the flash brightness in Auto mode only in P,S,A,M.
Also while doing the tests I had my vivitar set to Manual.

Re: Vivitar 283 flash Gun and Fuji.
 

I’ve done a few tests now and had to re set the white balance, it seems better to have the iso set at 400 for indoors while using the flash. I had to bounce the flash off the ceiling as pointing the flash directly at the subject gave me a complete image white out.

Re: Vivitar 283 flash Gun and Fuji.
 

Yeah you should set the white balance for every kind of lighting, if you read the manual it tells you how to do it with a peice of card, grey cards can be bought for doing this, I have a handy collapsable grey card from lastolite, it really does make a difference when you do a custom white balance.
at home when i'm doing portraits I know what my lighting is and have a white balance pre-set in the camera, I use 2 vivitars which are both bounced and not pointed direct. Its usually better to bounce it anyway as this reduces any shadows
Just keep trying different settings you will soon pick it up, all seems a bit confusing at 1st when youre getting pure white pictures :)
What I do if i'm not sure is set the camera on M and set to the aperture I want to use then take a test shot with the flash on and at 45 degrees, if its blown out select a faster shutter speed

Re: Vivitar 283 flash Gun and Fuji.
 

I used a white piece of paper to set the custom white balance. I held it about 4 inches away from the front of the lens and filled the whole of the view finder then bounce the flash from the ceiling. All my tests at the moment have been in P mode.

Re: Vivitar 283 flash Gun and Fuji.
 

Can you tell me …. Does it matter which modes you have the camera set too while using the flash or is it not that important?

Re: Vivitar 283 flash Gun and Fuji.
 

Its not that important, it all depends what kind of shot you are after, the flash will work in P A S and M
P is a programmed auto mode,
if you want to specify shutter speed ie to capture a fast moving subject or to show "movement" in a photo use S
If you want to show everything in the photo in focus or to exagerate DOF (depth of field) ie the main subject is in focus and the background is blurred use A
M is full manual where you can set everything yourself.
Remember if you use S and you set the shutter speed the aperture is set for you and visa versa if you use A

edit - Just found this for you, this gives a good explanation from someone who can put it in better words than I can :-)

Re: Vivitar 283 flash Gun and Fuji.
 

Thanks for that KSH, perhaps I should have asked what is the recommended iso setting while using a flash?
I know the higher the iso the faster the film. hehe

So I would have thought that by using a flash producing bright light the iso would be quite low, say 80,100 or 200 but when experimenting I found that those settings were to slow and produced dark images. So I set the iso to 400 and got fairly good results using the flash.
I know with my old practica slr when I had a 400 film fitted, for using in not so good lighting conditions I had to hold the camera very still because of the relatively slow shutter speed I had to select due to the bad lighting.
Would this not be the same for my digital camera i.e. having it set at 400 even though I'm using a flash

Re: Vivitar 283 flash Gun and Fuji.
 

I tend to do a lot of portraits and I personally use 100 sometimes 200, using the camera outside i use 80 unless it is a very dull day then I up it to 100 or 200, If I go out at night say to a family get together in a club I will go to 400 but no more than that as I feel the images are too grainy and I dont like them that way.
What angle have you got the flash at? have you tried other positions? I usually have mine at 60 if i'm not bouncing it back, mine has a diffuser on it though so it will still throw some light forward Heres one you might want to try adding a peice of card just to see if improves anything like this

Re: Vivitar 283 flash Gun and Fuji.
 

How you getting on with the flash? did you use it at the meet?
I did a test the other day using the Vivitar and had the camera set at iso 80 and it worked well, meant to try it without the diffuser on but forgot :-(

Re: Vivitar 283 flash Gun and Fuji.
 

I used the flash at the meeting. I had it in P mode and I had the iso set at 400 because any lower the images would be very dark.

See below.
P mode... iso set at 80 with flash bounced of the the ceiling.


http://www.accringtonweb.com/gallery...o/3243/cat/604

.

Re: Vivitar 283 flash Gun and Fuji.
 

Thats not right, I just tried the same settings and mine was OK, try this for me and see what you get
Put in M mode, set shutter to 4000 iso to 80 and set iso to 3.6, set the asa on the flash to 80 (1 notch past the 64 mark) set the thyristor to M and point the flash full on

Re: Vivitar 283 flash Gun and Fuji.
 

OK done what you asked.
shutter to 4000, iso 80, F3.6.


http://www.accringtonweb.com/gallery...o=3253&cat=604

Re: Vivitar 283 flash Gun and Fuji.
 

From the 1st photo it didn't look like the flash was doing anything and I though it might have been out of sync but now you have used the fastest shutter speed it shows that it isn't.
When you say you bounced it off the ceiling did you mean you had the flash pointing straight up? have you tried different angles, I usually use 60 degrees.
Do you want to try out my diffuser? you can try the flash as well if you like to see if there is any difference

Re: Vivitar 283 flash Gun and Fuji.
 

I think it was straight up. So I did the tests again, one at 60deg and another straight up and there wasn’t mush difference in brightness between the two.
The flash is second hand and perhaps it’s busted.
Would be good if I could check mine against another working camera and flash unit.
I haven’t a clue, if I can’t get them to work together than I won’t use them

Re: Vivitar 283 flash Gun and Fuji.
 

I managed this shot using direct flash. I had the shutter speed very high about 3000 and F3.7. iso set at 80 and in Manual mode.
Better than my earlier attempts but I’ll have to remember how I did it. hehe

Re: Vivitar 283 flash Gun and Fuji.
 

Thats a bit brighter :)

Re: Vivitar 283 flash Gun and Fuji.
 

You sorted it out now Len?
Did you fit the screen protector I gave you OK?
Any better now you got a diffuser?