Pentaxian Registered: September, 2017 Location: South Wales Posts: 2,977 | | Review Date: November 25, 2020 | Recommended | Price: $10.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Powerful, well made, intuitive controls, low trigger voltage. | | Cons: | No TTL or dedication, fitting batteries fiddly, accessories hard to find, only one manual power level. | |
A large, powerful hammerhead similar to the 555 (or G4500DX outside North America) and 544 (or 4205G) - I shall come to the differences. The Guide number is 45 (metres @ISO 100).
It is well made, except that the battery holder uses leaf spring contacts rather than superior coil springs, and it is fiddly to get the batteries in and out of their holder. The battery holder is removable so I prefer to recharge the six AA NiCad batteries in it as a permanent cluster rather than removing them individually every time. Sunpak offered a block-like NiCad battery cluster and charger as an extra, but you probably won't find one now.
The batteries are housed in the head rather than the handle, which makes it a bit top-heavy (not so noticable on a heavy camera). The battery door is strong enough, a weakness on many other units.
There is a socket for a high voltage input from a belt-carried battery pack or a mains adaptor. Other available extras included telephoto and wide angle adaptors, and an alternative bracket for TLRs, but these accessories would be hard to find today.
The controls are all on the back. There is the OFF/HV/BATTERY switch and a slider to set film/sensor sensitivity. This is a slide rule moving a row of F-numbers in a window, with no connection to the internals. The highest ISO on the scale is 1600. The third switch selects between three auto modes (red yellow and green) and a single full discharge manual mode. Each auto mode displays a line showing the distances over which it will be effective; the upper end of each line, and the associated permanent red/yellow/green marks, are opposite the recommended F-number in the slide rule window. It is a good arrangement.
The Auto control seems to be accurate. There is a test button and indicator light to check adequate illumination. My unit came with a filter holder which clips to the front in a rather flimsy way; the telephoto adaptor would also fit this way.
There is no TTL mode or camera dedication. The connection to the camera is a simple coiled lead to the camera's PC sync X socket. The plug on the flash unit end is sturdy (unlike on some other units) even though it looks like a Third World mains plug. I measured the trigger voltage as 6.6V, correct polarity, so it is safe for modern cameras.
I bought two as a job lot, used and "untested" from Ebay for £12 - far lower than the typical price of the equivalent Pentax AF400T. The latter does have camera dedication and film-era TTL, but that older TTL system cannot be used on a modern digital camera anyway so is a limited advantage.
Certain other Sunpack hammerhead flash units of the time are very similar and obviously shared manufacturing parts and accessories. The 555 (or G4500DX) differs in additionally having seven manual power levels (from full down to 1/64), and can use optional modules to dedicate it to particular film era cameras, even offering film-era TTL control if the camera supports it. The Sunpak 544 (or 4205G) has the slightly lower Guide Number of 42, but like the 555 has a range of seven manual settings; its setting dials are more complex to work with and the sync lead connects to the unit with a flimsy 2.5mm jack plug that has been reported as being easily broken off.
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