I have an old
Sunpak Auto 144 Thyristor flash. I have a new K100d, and while I plan to get a P-TTL flash eventually, I'd like to try the Sunpak before dropping another $150 plus for camera stuff!
I guess I understand in general how to use the Sunpak, but not sure. Would someone look over my ideas below and tell me if I'm on the right track?
The Sunpak 144 has a slider settings for ISO, which then directs which f stop to use. For instance, if I set ISO 200, the f stop directed is f 2.8, which I cannot set with the 18-55mm kit lens, so I bumped the ISO to 400. Now the Sunpak indicates I need to use f4. Also with the directed f stop the flash gives the effective shooting range, which with ISO 400 is roughly 6 to 33 feet. I use ISO 400 as the flash setting in the example below:
Camera/Lens: K100d/18-55mm f4.5 (I can't set f4 with this lens so I just open it all the way; seems better than bumping the ISO to 800!)
- Turn on and charge Sunpak - Set it to ISO 400. Aperture directed is f4.
- Turn on the Camera - Set it to ISO 400 (same as flash)
- Set Camera to Aperture Priority exposure, set to f 4.5, close to f4 as directed by Sunpak.
But when I try this, the shutter seems to be very, very slow, like maybe .3 second. I can't see the shutter speed, or maybe I don't know how to find that yet. The picture seems to be okay as seen on the LCD, I haven't down loaded to the PC.
It took me a few minutes of screwing around with the Sunpak to discover the ISO slider switch on the Sunpak has
two stops. For ISO 400 set at the first stop, it says to use f4 on the camera, but if I slide the switch up to the second stop, it now says to use f11- What in the WORLD is that about? Is the switch busted or something? I don't have directions for the Sunpak 144 and there are no markings on that switch. I'm thinking this might be the "Auto" and "Manual" mode for the flash, but I don't know which is which.
Also, can someone please help me determine the guide number for the Sunpak 144 compared to say, the Pentax 360 P-TTL flash unit. They really confuse me with varying the distance, ISO and other factors - hard to do an apples to apples comparison. If the Sunpak has a very low guide number compared to the Pentax 360 I will probably upgrade sooner than later.
Also, is it possible it use the Sunpak as a slave unit with the addition of some sort of firing unit?