I have this flash to use with an old Olympus OM-1. I'm a photography amateur, and have no instruction manual for this!! So, does anyone know what the settings are on the back of the flash (red, blue, orange circles, an M, and a yellow triangle)?? Also, on the part that you attach to the flash so it can attach to the camera, what is the little switch on the side? I appreciate any help!
Be very careful of using old flashes on new cameras. I have a Vivitar 283 and the hot shoe puts over 200 Volts on the center pin. It works fine for old mechanical cameras, but will fry a new DSLR. ebay sells voltage limiting hot shoe adapters cheaply. Check them out or go to your local photography store to buy one. This site says it should be safe for modern DLSR's:
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If you are still using this on your OM-1, then disregard the previous paragraph :).
The colored circles correspond to a power level setting. For instance if the blue setting says f/5.6, you set your cameras aperture to f/5.6, the shutter speed to 1/60 second (or whatever the sync speed is of the camera, but 1/60 is a safe setting). The sensor on the front tells the flash that it sees enough light for an f/5.6 opening of the lens and tells the flash to shut off. This way, it doesn't need to use TTL (through the lens) information from the camera to tell the flash to shut off. It's less sophisticated than TTL, but its more flexible in that it works for all brands of cameras, not just Olympus or Nikon or Canon.
M means "Manual". It fires full power every time.
You can test the flash without a camera by pressing on a switch in the back. Try it at different settings and at different distances from a bright wall, you'll "hear" different flash powers as the flash goes off and notice how stronger flashes take longer to recharge the unit. Be warned, you'll go through a set of batteries pretty fast if you pop off a lot of full flashes.
You chose a color setting, read the scale for what distance you are shooting at and set the aperture to that reading. Then shoot. Try it out in a bedroom size room or of a subject about 6-10 feet away.
The switch at the foot is actually a locking lever. The flash slides onto the hot shoe of your camera and the lever locks the flash so that it doesn't fall off if pushed backwards.
Hope that helps
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