another help needed with flash thread

stumpy.uk · Dec 8, 2002

Hi

I have a sunpak 383 super flash which I use with my 602.

while I love the power of the flash, i'm not having much luck with getting the settings "Just" right.

I took several pictures tonight of our christmas tree which in all honesty were in almost total darkness, save for the light given off by my TV and a few candles.

One shot comes out looking quite sharp and then the next is really blurry.

Could it just be the low light focus or the flash settings doing this?

the exif details should show the settings.

Help please!
have I just overlooked something?
--
If I can take a picture 1/2 as good as I imagine it to be, i'll be happy

SRE7 · Dec 8, 2002

Greetings..

Hey, I had the same thing happen to me and then I realized that I hadn't enabled the external flash option in the camera menu. Once I did that it worked great...I have a Vivitar 283 and a 285. The 285 was used to shoot high school football from the side lines and it worked so well that I didn't even need to use the ISO 800 or 1600. Obviously, it worked better on more modern lit fields, but was at least usable on all fields that I shot.

The 383 should be as powerful as the 283 or the 285.

Hope that this helps.

Steve

stumpy.uk said:
Hi

I have a sunpak 383 super flash which I use with my 602.

while I love the power of the flash, i'm not having much luck with
getting the settings "Just" right.
I took several pictures tonight of our christmas tree which in all
honesty were in almost total darkness, save for the light given off
by my TV and a few candles.

One shot comes out looking quite sharp and then the next is really
blurry.

Could it just be the low light focus or the flash settings doing this?

the exif details should show the settings.

Help please!
have I just overlooked something?
--
If I can take a picture 1/2 as good as I imagine it to be, i'll be
happy

stumpy.uk · Dec 8, 2002

SRE7 said:
Greetings..

Hey, I had the same thing happen to me and then I realized that I
hadn't enabled the external flash option in the camera menu. Once
I did that it worked great...I have a Vivitar 283 and a 285. The
285 was used to shoot high school football from the side lines and
it worked so well that I didn't even need to use the ISO 800 or
1600. Obviously, it worked better on more modern lit fields, but
was at least usable on all fields that I shot.

The 383 should be as powerful as the 283 or the 285.

Hope that this helps.

Steve

I have the lpiccies up on pbase now
http://www.pbase.com/stumpy1/flash_test_pix
They do still have the exif data.

The sunpack was turned right down to 1/16 of its power and used on the yellow auto scale (the exposure check lamp came on after each shot....so the light seems to be right)

SRE7 said:
SRE7 said:

--
If I can take a picture 1/2 as good as I imagine it to be, i'll be
happy

Click to expand...

--
If I can take a picture 1/2 as good as I imagine it to be, i'll be happy

Buellwinkle · Dec 8, 2002

If it's really dark it won't focus so just use the manual focus feature. Also I've had good luck indoors following the guide on my Vivitar 283 with minor adjustments one way or the other. For example I shot a bunch of pictures at a meeting at 1/125th at F8 for the closer shots and F6.3 for a little further out shots and they game out perfect except for glare from a white board. I used a wide angle diffuser to cut down the light a little bit and broaden the path of the light.

JAJ · Dec 8, 2002

Stumpy,

That's what it looks like to me. You blurry image was not focused correctly which would be understandable if you took the shot in the near darkness. Did you bounce the flash. It seems that the lighting is a bit unbalanced, like you had the flash aimed high and to the right. The front of the tree was a little underexposed.

JAJ

stumpy.uk said:
Hi

I have a sunpak 383 super flash which I use with my 602.

while I love the power of the flash, i'm not having much luck with
getting the settings "Just" right.
I took several pictures tonight of our christmas tree which in all
honesty were in almost total darkness, save for the light given off
by my TV and a few candles.

One shot comes out looking quite sharp and then the next is really
blurry.

Could it just be the low light focus or the flash settings doing this?

the exif details should show the settings.

Help please!
have I just overlooked something?
--
If I can take a picture 1/2 as good as I imagine it to be, i'll be
happy

ga-ga · Dec 8, 2002

Hi stumps!....
interesting.........
its nothing to do with the flash - its just an AF problem....!
see http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1012&message=3783821
we get to rely on the AF but it's not infalible.....
had you manually focussed you'd have been alright
as the FM says some subjects are a problem for the AF.....
here it is possible that when you were focusing on the pinpoint fairy lights

the AF might have seen two coincidental point as one point further away - or alternatively it might just have been fooled by flare or if they were the flashing kind that might have confused it too -

if you look at the exif - you will see that the AF thought it had good focus on both shots!..... (I'm looking at the two Xmas tree shots)

Ironically if you had a complete AF failure your shot would have been fine!...... the 2m default is good from 1m to 24m at f4 / 7.8mm

regards ga-ga

stumpy.uk said:
SRE7 said:

Greetings..

Hey, I had the same thing happen to me and then I realized that I
hadn't enabled the external flash option in the camera menu. Once
I did that it worked great...I have a Vivitar 283 and a 285. The
285 was used to shoot high school football from the side lines and
it worked so well that I didn't even need to use the ISO 800 or
1600. Obviously, it worked better on more modern lit fields, but
was at least usable on all fields that I shot.

The 383 should be as powerful as the 283 or the 285.

Hope that this helps.

Steve

Click to expand...

I have the lpiccies up on pbase now
http://www.pbase.com/stumpy1/flash_test_pix
They do still have the exif data.

The sunpack was turned right down to 1/16 of its power and used on
the yellow auto scale (the exposure check lamp came on after each
shot....so the light seems to be right)

stumpy.uk said:

stumpy.uk said:

--
If I can take a picture 1/2 as good as I imagine it to be, i'll be
happy

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
If I can take a picture 1/2 as good as I imagine it to be, i'll be
happy

stumpy.uk · Dec 8, 2002

JAJ said:
Stumpy,

That's what it looks like to me. You blurry image was not focused
correctly which would be understandable if you took the shot in the
near darkness. Did you bounce the flash. It seems that the
lighting is a bit unbalanced, like you had the flash aimed high and
to the right. The front of the tree was a little underexposed.

JAJ

The flash was bounced and for some of the shots it was turned round (the shot was taken portrait style to get the height) The swivel head is great for that.

it was almost total darkness though.......that must be the down fall, becaue the sunpak really does light the room.
looking at the exif data, would the settings be deemed OK?

JAJ said:
JAJ said:

--
If I can take a picture 1/2 as good as I imagine it to be, i'll be
happy

Click to expand...

--
If I can take a picture 1/2 as good as I imagine it to be, i'll be happy

stumpy.uk · Dec 9, 2002

ga-ga said:
Hi stumps!....
interesting.........
its nothing to do with the flash - its just an AF problem....!
see http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1012&message=3783821
we get to rely on the AF but it's not infalible.....
had you manually focussed you'd have been alright
as the FM says some subjects are a problem for the AF.....
here it is possible that when you were focusing on the pinpoint
fairy lights
the AF might have seen two coincidental point as one point further
away - or alternatively it might just have been fooled by flare or
if they were the flashing kind that might have confused it too -
if you look at the exif - you will see that the AF thought it had
good focus on both shots!..... (I'm looking at the two Xmas tree
shots)
Ironically if you had a complete AF failure your shot would have
been fine!...... the 2m default is good from 1m to 24m at f4 / 7.8mm

regards ga-ga

Thanks for reply ga-ga

i think it was the exif data that confused me more than anything.

If it hadn't have sugested the focus was fine, i wouldn't have thought about flash/shutter/aperture settings.

--
If I can take a picture 1/2 as good as I imagine it to be, i'll be happy

JAJ · Dec 9, 2002

Stumpy,

EXIF F 4.0 ,1/100sec should work at that wide angle. I might try a slower shutter speed (1/400 or 1/250) since there is no movement and wide lens just to see if there is any difference. I do think it is a focus problem, mostly though.

JAJ

stumpy.uk said:
JAJ said:

Stumpy,

That's what it looks like to me. You blurry image was not focused
correctly which would be understandable if you took the shot in the
near darkness. Did you bounce the flash. It seems that the
lighting is a bit unbalanced, like you had the flash aimed high and
to the right. The front of the tree was a little underexposed.

JAJ

Click to expand...

The flash was bounced and for some of the shots it was turned round
(the shot was taken portrait style to get the height) The swivel
head is great for that.
it was almost total darkness though.......that must be the down
fall, becaue the sunpak really does light the room.
looking at the exif data, would the settings be deemed OK?

stumpy.uk said:

stumpy.uk said:

--
If I can take a picture 1/2 as good as I imagine it to be, i'll be
happy

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
If I can take a picture 1/2 as good as I imagine it to be, i'll be
happy

Search

another help needed with flash thread

stumpy.uk

Active member

SRE7

New member

stumpy.uk

Active member

Buellwinkle

Well-known member

JAJ

Leading Member

ga-ga

Senior Member

stumpy.uk

Active member

stumpy.uk

Active member

JAJ

Leading Member

Keyboard shortcuts