Uneven Lighting with Hotshoe Flash

KellyG

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I recently purchased a Hotshoe Flash Vivitar DF 383 model for dedicated use on my Olympus C8080 WZ Camera, to make a long story short during it's first shooting at an art gallery the lighting looks very uneven it's showing a very obvious (vignetteing) or ( sudden Drop Off) in many of the shots, I can't believe it but the cameras pop up was doing a way better job! I am thinking it has something to do with the flash's motorized zoom feature although I don't use any lens position other than the normal one the camera starts up with, (I Never Zoom at all) I have even tried ajusting the different positions manually on the flash head but not to much change. ...Have I bought a bad flash here, or am I just not using it correctly. My cameras Lens is 28mm-140 zoom the flash has positions between 24-85MM any help will be appreciated.

KellyG
 
With a bridge-style camera, it's not surprising that the pop-up flash appears to do a better job; after all, it's specifically designed to work with your camera. It is possible that the flash zoom isn't functioning correctly; do you notice the vignetting is particularily strong or weak at a given lens focal length and flash zoom? Could you post a couple of example images to help with the analysis?
 
Yes, examples would help....but it does sound like the zoom of the flash head (thus, the spread of light) isn't matching up with the zoom (thus the field of view) on your camera.

The way it's supposed to work, is that the flash head will zoom (if automatic) to match the zoom (focal length) setting of the lens. This is so that you aren't wasting light by spreading it over a wider area than the lens is seeing. But if the flash isn't covering a wide enough area, then you have a problem somewhere.
 
Thanks for the help Guys! I can't upload images on this forum, ..But let me ask you, ...is there anything I should have done to calibrate the flash to the camera besides just operating it in TTL mode? everything seem to be working correctly all stats are displaying, exposure seems fairly normal for TTL metering ...I'm a little concerned since it's specifically designed for my cameras series! and if there is no ajustments on these units, I own a piece of junk that takes lousy photos!

Thanks KellyG
 
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If it's in TTL mode, you shouldn't have to do anything, but I'm wondering if perhaps there's a chance that the flash might not be 100% compatible with your camera? I know very little about bridge cameras, and less about Olympus in particular, but it does seem that since flash units like that are generally geared toward the SLR market, there's a chance that something might not be playing nicely? I'm thinking in particular that the camera might not transmit, or the flash might not understand the focal length information from the camera's lens?
 
If it's in TTL mode, you shouldn't have to do anything, but I'm wondering if perhaps there's a chance that the flash might not be 100% compatible with your camera? I know very little about bridge cameras, and less about Olympus in particular, but it does seem that since flash units like that are generally geared toward the SLR market, there's a chance that something might not be playing nicely? I'm thinking in particular that the camera might not transmit, or the flash might not understand the focal length information from the camera's lens?
That's what I was thinking as well.
 
Thanks, yes some of the Olympus Junkies told me I should stick to Oly Original equipment, and not aftermarket equipment, But OLY is very expensive ...Seems they may have been right though! BTW what is a Bridge camera do mean somewhere between a P&S and a DSLR? ...As a last question is there a MM setting I could keep the head at manually to get the widest most even spread.
 
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BTW what is a Bridge camera do mean somewhere between a P&S and a DSLR?
Yes. Bridge cameras are typically bigger & better than the small digital P&S type cameras and may have a decent lens on them....but they still have a tiny sensor like P&S cameras and probably don't have true TTL optical viewfinders etc.
 
Thank for your help Big Mike & tirediron! ..Just in the event I have no other Choice here, what is AUTO FLASH mode about? ...is it like MANUAL where you have to keep judging your distances and changing F stops? (I'm a studio shooter) ... and I'm used to flash meters and power packs, ...this on camera computerized lighting is quite new to me! ...so please bear with me!

KellyG
 
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