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e10 and a vivitar 285

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Jimmy Z

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I will be using my new E10 and a 2 year old Vivitar 285 for an extra camera at a wedding this weekend. As far as I can see the only way to use it, is to set it on manual, so I can set a 60 SEC sync speed at f 5.6. The camera does not seem to recognize that there is a flash on the camera and sync to a flash speed. Is that because it is not a ttl flash? I have used the flash about 20 times without any problem as far as destroying the camera with voltage spike from the flash. does that mean it wont in the future or is the flash voltage OK.

--
jim
 
I've taken over 1000 shots with the 285 on the E10 for the job I'm doing and it's not killed it yet, I can't remember the voltage ceiling for the protection but from what I've read, it's a helluva lot higher than the 100-odd V my ancient 285 delivers..

One question, this flashgun is old and seen a lot of life, I'd like a backup - my local Jessops has a 283 for £35 including some converter or other, is this basically the 285 without the Zoom ??

--
Olympus E10 +WCON, E100RS +B300, Nikon E950, E900.
 
Adam-T said:
One question, this flashgun is old and seen a lot of life, I'd like
a backup - my local Jessops has a 283 for £35 including some
converter or other, is this basically the 285 without the Zoom ??
Click to expand...
Hi Adam,

The other difference between the 283 and the 285 (apart from the zoom) is the 285 has the built in vari power control (1/2,1/4 and 1/16 power) which according to the speedgraphic brochure I have in front of me is a £18.95 extra on the 283.

Hope that helps,

Chris.
 
Chris Toner said:
The other difference between the 283 and the 285 (apart from the
zoom) is the 285 has the built in vari power control (1/2,1/4 and
1/16 power) which according to the speedgraphic brochure I have in
front of me is a £18.95 extra on the 283.
Click to expand...
Thanks Chris!..

I think THAT maybe the thing which is included with the unit on sale! - If it is then it sounds like a good buy then, a 285 minus zoom for £35! .. I'll download the manual for it and check it out..

--
Olympus E10 +WCON, E100RS +B300, Nikon E950, E900.
 
Jimmy Z said:
I will be using my new E10 and a 2 year old Vivitar 285 for an
extra camera at a wedding this weekend. As far as I can see the
only way to use it, is to set it on manual, so I can set a 60 SEC
sync speed at f 5.6. The camera does not seem to recognize that
there is a flash on the camera and sync to a flash speed. Is that
because it is not a ttl flash? I have used the flash about 20 times
without any problem as far as destroying the camera with voltage
spike from the flash. does that mean it wont in the future or is
the flash voltage OK.

--
jim
Click to expand...
Since the E-10/20 uses a leaf shutter, you can synchronize the flash at any shutter speed you wish. You may want to set the shutter speed higher than 1/60th in order to avoid the ambient light from affecting your shot. I set my white balance to the daylight setting and leave it there when I use the flash as it is the primary light source and it's balanced for daylight color temperature. I used the 285HV as fill flash for these shots...



 
I bought the 283 - and guess what? - it's an 8.5V one (at the shoe) so it must be fairly recent , my 285 is well over 100V, also it DID come with the varipower unit which I immedietly replaced the sensor with, smooth pot control from low to full :) .

Like my 285, I can run the camera in continous mode and have the flash fire everytime (on lower power) :)

Now the big question is - IS 8.5V too much for an E100RS to handle, if not, I then have a flash I can use on that too ..

--
Olympus E10 +WCON, E100RS +B300, Nikon E950, E900.
 
Thanks for the offer Roland but I picked up the 283 in my luch-break today as it has the VP1 varipower unit with it.. It's an 8.5V one too so should be safe on the E100RS too :)

--
Olympus E10 +WCON, E100RS +B300, Nikon E950, E900.
 
Adam-T said:
I bought the 283 - and guess what? - it's an 8.5V one (at the shoe)
so it must be fairly recent , my 285 is well over 100V, also it DID
come with the varipower unit which I immedietly replaced the sensor
with, smooth pot control from low to full :) .

Like my 285, I can run the camera in continous mode and have the
flash fire everytime (on lower power) :)
Olympus E10 +WCON, E100RS +B300, Nikon E950, E900.
Click to expand...
Hi Adam,

Glad to see the 283 worked out.

I take it from what you were saying that you plan to use the 283/5 in manual mode then at a lower power setting to allow continuous shooting and using the guide number to sort out the required aperture? If so how do you find that works?

I normally use mine on auto and then get carried away shooting shots before the flash has recycled enough resulting in some underexposed shots.

Cheers,

Chris.
 
Chris Toner said:
I take it from what you were saying that you plan to use the 283/5
in manual mode then at a lower power setting to allow continuous
shooting and using the guide number to sort out the required
aperture? If so how do you find that works?
Click to expand...
It works beautifully! though it does depend on the subject matter distance greatly as you would expect - I found Auto mode to be a bit hit and miss as to how many shots I'd get out, at least this way, I have a fair idea based on what the varipower is set to..

I like the continous dial on the 283's VP1 module though it's a bit of a pain having to replace the auto sensor with the VP1 unit when you want to use it, though I doubt I'll use the auto-sensor much... I may get a slave sensor thing for it, leave the VP1 on and it can double up as a very handy adjustable "hair light" or whatever :)) - the nice thing is that it's within the tolerance voltage for the E100RS, the 285 being an ancient one is way over the top..

regarding multishots - With the E10 only having 4 shots in continous mode, you can get quite high up the scale in power before the flash can't keep up ;-)..

On the 285 (for portraits etc), I DO use auto mode however.

--
Olympus E10 +WCON, E100RS +B300, Nikon E950, E900.
 
Jimmy,
I may be wrong on this one so try it out plenty before you shoot the wedding.

When using film, it is often better to overexpose than underexpose. With digital it is quite the opposite, its better to underexpose. So set the shutter speed to 1/125 and not 1/60 for normal distances. The camera will sync at any speed, certainly up to 1/640.

Your vivitar flash also has a different colour tube than the usual flash so make sure the whitebalance is set correctly.
Good luck at the weding
Charles
 
Jimmy Z said:
I will be using my new E10 and a 2 year old Vivitar 285 for an
extra camera at a wedding this weekend. As far as I can see the
only way to use it, is to set it on manual, so I can set a 60 SEC
sync speed at f 5.6. The camera does not seem to recognize that
there is a flash on the camera and sync to a flash speed. Is that
because it is not a ttl flash? I have used the flash about 20 times
without any problem as far as destroying the camera with voltage
spike from the flash. does that mean it wont in the future or is
the flash voltage OK.

--
jim
Click to expand...
The newer 285 units are ok just dont use an old one. I have two of them and do not use my fl40 anymore. I use it at about a 60th indoors and up to a 640th outdoors. no closed eyes and very rapid shooting. I have a gel cell power pack good for over 1000 shots. Old relible, you just have to think a little. clm
--
charleslmims
 
Charles L. Mims said:
The newer 285 units are ok just dont use an old one.
Click to expand...
The old ones are fine too - the very early 283s got up to 600V but I don't think the 285s did, my early one is no where near that high but is over 100V (the last time I measured it) and works fine - the secondhand 283 I bought yesterday is a more sensible 8.5V
Charles L. Mims said:
them and do not use my fl40 anymore.
Click to expand...
No disrespect meant but I still can't believe that people who HAVE top flashes like the Vivitars are willing to spend £300 on an FL40 which has the same guide number as a 283/5 just for the convenience of TTL flash metering!, the whole thing about the Exx is that it handles like a film SLR in manual mode - £300 is a lot of money to pay for convenience!. A Metz is a better (though still expensive) option as it can be used on a range of cameras but I'd still baulk at paying the price..

--
Olympus E10 +WCON, E100RS +B300, Nikon E950, E900.
 
Great job, Terry. Can you tell us a bit about your workflow in attaining this quality? How do you effectively mix ambient and strobe light? Do you rely entirely on the VariPower Unit? Do you have a rule of thumb as to which zone (red, yellow, purple, blue) you use under different conditions? Cheers Matthias
 
In agreement with Adam

I actually use a Cullmann DC36 on auto, the camera is set to manual exposure 1/125 at F5.6 and WB 6500K (or occaisionally 5500K for very red faced people), I have no problems with it, the exposures are good and consistent from 0.4m up to about 7m when set to auto and the flash zoom is set to 24mm, if I need greater range fron the flash I set the flash zoom to say.. 70-100mm to concentrate the flash at the subject.

I see no reason whatsoever (apart from flash failure) to ever purchase another flash unit especially an FL40 which is 20x more expensive than what I paid for my Cullmann.

I may be wrong here, but I have never liked TTL flash metering, generally. I used to use a Minolta 9xi and a 7xi for backup, they were the only cameras that had dedicated flash metering which really worked. IMO Canon and Nikon never quite got it right.
Best Wishes
Charles
Adam-T said:
Adam-T said:
The newer 285 units are ok just dont use an old one.
Click to expand...
The old ones are fine too - the very early 283s got up to 600V but
I don't think the 285s did, my early one is no where near that high
but is over 100V (the last time I measured it) and works fine - the
secondhand 283 I bought yesterday is a more sensible 8.5V
Adam-T said:
them and do not use my fl40 anymore.
Click to expand...
No disrespect meant but I still can't believe that people who HAVE
top flashes like the Vivitars are willing to spend £300 on an FL40
which has the same guide number as a 283/5 just for the convenience
of TTL flash metering!, the whole thing about the Exx is that it
handles like a film SLR in manual mode - £300 is a lot of money to
pay for convenience!. A Metz is a better (though still expensive)
option as it can be used on a range of cameras but I'd still baulk
at paying the price..

--
Olympus E10 +WCON, E100RS +B300, Nikon E950, E900.
Click to expand...
 
charles ward said:
I may be wrong here, but I have never liked TTL flash metering,
generally.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure that Oly have got it right either, using the built in flash, the results are a bit hit and miss with the E10, it's as if the TTL flash system is too clever for it's own good - the 2 old nikon Coolpixes are far better.. The E10 built in flash will get used for emergencies and party snapshots and that's it - maybe fill in on occasion using the flash reduction in the menu..

Flash metering and indoor flashless auto whitebalance are IMO two Oly weaknesses (the RS is much the same)

--
Olympus E10 +WCON, E100RS +B300, Nikon E950, E900.
 
mattigol said:
Great job, Terry. Can you tell us a bit about your workflow in
attaining this quality? How do you effectively mix ambient and
strobe light? Do you rely entirely on the VariPower Unit? Do you
have a rule of thumb as to which zone (red, yellow, purple, blue)
you use under different conditions? Cheers Matthias
Click to expand...
Thanks, Mattigol. Basically, I set up the scene the way I wanted it and then metered the most important part of the scene. The E-10 is pretty center weighted so I metered the face. I used my 285HV with a Lumiquest Pocket Bounce. I placed the flash in the blue auto position which called for f/8. Through the previous metering, I found that a shutter speed of 1/125th would be sufficient for that aperture. I placed the camera in manual mode and set my values. I usually open up one more stop when using the Pocket Bounce so I set the camera at that f/stop. I find this works well at about 12-15 feet. If I move closer than that, I usually close my aperture down about 1/2 to 3/4 of a stop. If I move further away than that, I open my aperture about the same amount. I don't use the varipower control much unless I use the flash in conjunction with my 283 and a slave trigger. Of course, the beauty of digital imaging is that you can check your images out on the spot so you can make adjustments if necessary.
 
Adam-T said:
the nice thing is that it's within the tolerance voltage for the
E100RS, the 285 being an ancient one is way over the top..
Click to expand...
Could you post your results from this setup. I have an E100rs and am interested in your thought on this setup. Also any "Special Mods" you had to do to get this to work.

thanks

Darin
 
Darin Bradford said:
Could you post your results from this setup. I have an E100rs and
am interested in your thought on this setup. Also any "Special
Mods" you had to do to get this to work.
Click to expand...
The E100RS is in dock at the moment unfortunately so I've not been able to try it, there is a converter lead by olympus available I think which I'll also have to get.. I was just happy that my 283 is within the voltage boundaries of the RS :)

--
Olympus E10 +WCON, E100RS +B300, Nikon E950, E900, E300
 
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