national PE-3057 flash instructions

[highbag]

Hi,
I've got a question, does anyone know a flash called "national PE-3057" ?
I have an Olympus OM2 and this flash, and I don't know how to use it right... The camera is rather old and the flash as well, but I hope someone can help me.
On the flash's backside you can select the ASA i.e. 100. Then you can select the focal length of the lens (or reflector) and then you got 3 different aperture sizes which you can select (they are linked to the distance between flash and objective...). Everything ok (a little bit complicated...), but which shutter speed do I use now?
Maybe someone knows how to use such an old flash...

Sorry for my english, I am german.
Bye

 

[Hertz van Rental]

The National PE3057 is an old manual flash.
That means you have to use the table on the back to set the ISO (it will be marked ASA). Select one of the three output settings. Set the indicated aperture on the camera, then make sure your flash to subject distance is that indicated for that exposure.
Further away and it will be too dark. Closer and it will over-expose.
The OM2 flash sync is supposedly 1/60th second, but I experienced some problems with this having the flash fire too slow for the shutter on some flash units.
I always set the shutter to 1/30th which works fine.
Make sure the little switch around the aux flash socket (on the front. Top right side of the lens mount) is set to 'X'. It is very easy to catch it and set it to 'FP'.

 

[highbag]

Okay, thank you very much!
What kind of problems did you have with 1/60th second? Can you tell me more about that?
Another question: I always thougt it is imposible to keep the camara still with a shutter speed under 1/60th second (without a support...).
And a last question: What means the 'FP'? What is that for?

Allright, thanks for your help!!!
Bye

 

[Hertz van Rental]

Okay, thank you very much!
What kind of problems did you have with 1/60th second? Can you tell me more about that?
Another question: I always thougt it is imposible to keep the camara still with a shutter speed under 1/60th second (without a support...).
And a last question: What means the 'FP'? What is that for?

Allright, thanks for your help!!!
Bye

Most people should be OK handholding at 1/30th. On a good day and with the right technique it is possible to get away with 1/15th.
With flash the problem of camera shake is very much reduced, the flash going off at a lot less than 1/30th.
On the OM2 I had problems in that some flashes would trigger before the blades of the shutter were fully open, giving a dark band across the image. I couldn't be bothered to get it checked to see if it was a camera fault so I just used the old standard of 1/30th.
Try it at 1/60th. You may not find a problem.
FP stands for 'focal plane'. It was an old method of magnesium flash where the bulb 'burned' along the direction of travel of the focal plane shutter. This meant theoretically that you could use much faster shutter speeds for flash.
It was never very popular and was all but defunct by the early 70's but manufacturers kept putting the facility in.
The sync point is different on FP so if you use it with electronic flash the shutter isn't properly open when the flash goes off.