Guides for using an external flash
Discussion
My other's half's mother found a flash when she was clearing out her loft and has kindly donated it to my ever expanding pile of camera gear.
Trouble is, I have no idea how to use it and i have no manual for it. There seem to be various settings on the back of the flash and I don't know what any of them are for or how I set the camera to compensate for the addition of a flash. I can get the flash to fire and have taken a few successful 'bounced' flash shots but these were pure guess work.
Any links to anywhere where I can read up on the basics?
Trouble is, I have no idea how to use it and i have no manual for it. There seem to be various settings on the back of the flash and I don't know what any of them are for or how I set the camera to compensate for the addition of a flash. I can get the flash to fire and have taken a few successful 'bounced' flash shots but these were pure guess work.
Any links to anywhere where I can read up on the basics?
I can't help on the guides although the forums at TalkPhotography have a dedicated lighting section which might help.
What I would say though is check the flash is safe to use with your camera before you use it again, some older flashguns use a much higher voltage than modern dSLRs use and you risk frying the flash circuitry if it is too much.
What I would say though is check the flash is safe to use with your camera before you use it again, some older flashguns use a much higher voltage than modern dSLRs use and you risk frying the flash circuitry if it is too much.
markmullen said:
I can't help on the guides although the forums at TalkPhotography have a dedicated lighting section which might help.
What I would say though is check the flash is safe to use with your camera before you use it again, some older flashguns use a much higher voltage than modern dSLRs use and you risk frying the flash circuitry if it is too much.
Thanks Mark. Glad you pointed that out. Will take a look later.What I would say though is check the flash is safe to use with your camera before you use it again, some older flashguns use a much higher voltage than modern dSLRs use and you risk frying the flash circuitry if it is too much.
Probably easier if you let us know what make of flashgun it is 
Having said that though, and depending on what you want to illuminate....if you're going to use it off camera, all you really need is a trigger and an idea of it's power rating. Shoot manual or aperture priority, dial down the settings a bit if the latter by a stop or something, whack the flash in and you're away.
Having said that though, and depending on what you want to illuminate....if you're going to use it off camera, all you really need is a trigger and an idea of it's power rating. Shoot manual or aperture priority, dial down the settings a bit if the latter by a stop or something, whack the flash in and you're away.
andy-xr said:
Probably easier if you let us know what make of flashgun it is
Funnily enough when I posted this, I thought I'd check when I got home. Just after I posted, I looked to my left and realised the flash was sat right next to me. 
It's a Hanimex TZ328. I've looked online and it seems that Markmullen was right to warn me about using it with my camera. It seems it may not be a good idea unless I get a trigger. Seeing as I just wanted to mess around with it, I think I'll leave it for now.
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