So, I have a couple Vivtar 283s (Guide: 110 ft @ 100ASA), but they're rather big + I would love a smaller flash to use as a slave with my compact cameras.

What is there out there that tucks away neatly into a pelicase yet still delivers an acceptable guide number?

This Easter I was using a cheap small flash tucked into one of those el-cheapo peli-case a likes (firing + triggering through the transparent case, held in place with little bits of cut up sponge), which was rather swish + nice to the human flash slaves, but also had rather weak light output.

"Cave photographers mostly use flashguns as their primary light, followed by bulbs as their second main source. Each have their own advantages and disadvantages. Flashguns are fairly inexpensive, are dependable and put out sufficient light for most work. The most commonly used are the Vivitar 283 or 285 and the Sunpak 433 series. These have a fairly good guide number and you can adjust the manual power output on them to save battery life. I also use a series of smaller guns that I've picked up on the used camera market for fill lights and close-up work. In addition, flashguns recharge themselves and can be used for multiple shots without having to adjust them between each shot."

http://www.ephotozine.com/article/A-shot-in-the-dark---guide-to-cave-photography

These sunpaks apparently have a 120' guide number, and look rather compact from photos, but there doesn't seem to be many of them this side of the pond...

A quick scout round some of the charity shops should see you with a selection of suitable flashguns and probably for pennies too. Seems loads of people are dumping their old kit now they've gone digital. Got 3 last month from one of the local shops and it was ?2 the lot. Case of suck-em and see re spec, but at that price what is there to loose?

Plenty of flashguns on ebay, I generally pay about ?5 each and use them with Firefly slaves.

Thankyou in-cumbria & ogofmole for your input - I've survived on generic brands from charity shops for a long time, but the reliability has always been rather dubious - cases falling apart, hot shoes coming off, battery containers cracking etc.

Since buying a Vivitar 283 (eBay, going price is around ?20-30 inc. P&P), I haven't looked back. It's far more durable than anything else I've used, even when it's been used 'naked' in a cave and got muddied it's just a matter of drying it out and toothbrushing off the mud.
The only issue is that it's now difficult to change the angle of the head (mud ingress on the joints) when changing batteries / using it above ground as a bounce flash.

Anyway, for general interest I took a photo of a Vivitar 283 (Guide 110 feet / ~36m @ 100ISO); Vivitar 255 (the one I was using inside a little generic peli case) [Guide 66 feet, ~22m]; my Peli 1030 (doesn't fit either flash - but does stash a little Canon A series digital, set of AA batteries + firefly); a Gibson design slave / generic Firefly made by 'potholer'; and a steel rule for scale!

The Vivitar 255 is narrow enough to fit the 1030 peli case but requires a deeper one as the flash head (set permanently at 90 degrees) is 58(+-1)mm deep.

there are always sunpaks :idea: cheap on ebay.  I like them cos they are flat (not L shaped) and easy to get into boxes rtc.
Also pretty cheap!
Hugh

Hi
IM pretty new to all this photography equipment but want to get myself kitted out with a flashgun so can take better pics underground, so might be a silly question but if you got a flashgun like the one in the pic above, that goes on the top of your camera? or can you attach a cable to the top and hole the flashgun in your hand to direct flash in different directions?
how does the firefly unit then link to that?
Thanks

Mr Bones said:

Hi
IM pretty new to all this photography equipment but want to get myself kitted out with a flashgun so can take better pics underground, so might be a silly question but if you got a flashgun like the one in the pic above, that goes on the top of your camera? or can you attach a cable to the top and hole the flashgun in your hand to direct flash in different directions?
how does the firefly unit then link to that?
Thanks

Click to expand...

The Firefly is a "slave" in effect and has a "hot shoe" attachment similar to most SLR and better compact cameras. The Firefly is attached directly to the flashgun just as you would attach the flashgun to a camera. You will need a Firefly 3 for a digital camera as they often fire their onboard flash multiple times.

You usually then use another flash which is fired directly by the camera: either the inbuilt flash if it has one or a separate flshgun attached to the camera. You can wither use this just as you would as normal and place the Firefly and its flash in a separate location and the camera's flash will cause the Firefly to fire its attached flash.

As you get much better results by not having the flash near the axis of the camera's lens (as you usually have with the camera's own flash) because moisture in the air reflects light from the flash straight back into the lens and also the photo will look "flat" as all the shadows are in line with the camera and subject, you can cover the camera's flash with a filter (either a small piece of exposed and processed film or a piece of the filter supplied with the Firefly) which lets through enough light of the right wavelength to fire the Firefly but doesn't light up the subject to any extent in the visible range.

The cheapest solution but much more of a faff is to put your camera on a tripod set to a long exposure and use the self timer. Then turn off all lights which are in the field of view and then fire your flash while holding it some distance from the camera so that itis not near the lens (usually flahguns have a "test" button which will fire the flash).

Nowadays with ultra-bright LED caving lights you can even do away with the flashgun altogether and simply repeat the above (camera on tripod, etc) and scan your caving light's beam over the subject; a technique known as "light painting".