A Tale of Two Old Flashes

Newstech

Senior Member
This may be more of an observation than a question. I snapped my trusty old (1980?) Vivitar SMS 30 onto my new D3200's hot shoe last night and couldn't get it to fire in any mode even though test button worked fine. I fought it for a long time. Eventually I dug out another flash someone gave me, a similar Vivitar 3500, also from the early 1980s, and it worked like a champ. (Long flash charge time with NiMH but fast with alkaline.) Both are simple flashes with two contacts and manual mode so all the camera has to do is complete the circuit. I've used both with optical slave triggers. They seem to fit OK. So, what would be the difference? Has anyone seen behavior like this, or am I the only one trying to bring photo dinosaurs back to life? (P.S. SMS 30 trigger voltage reportedly around 7V.)
 
Was the camera flash setting at manual? Oh and be careful using really old flashes on new cameras. Some send very high voltage thru the circuit when closed. Maybe just a bad shoe.
 
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Newstech

Senior Member
I tried various settings. Both flashes have thyristor self control. But to simplify, camera on M, both flashes on M, 3500 fires, I pull it off and put on SMS, it doesn't fire. I'll continue testing that one but last I used it with a slave, a couple years ago, it fired, so the foot should be OK. The 3500 is actually the better flash so I'm not hurting. The SMS uses 4 AA batteries as opposed to 2, which gives it a longevity edge.
 

Newstech

Senior Member
Used 1/125, the sync speed of the Nikkormat I used with the SMS for decades. Yay, Vivitar, by the way. But any idea is worth examining. I'd be especially interested if anyone else had a simple flash not work in a D3200 in particular.
 

10 Gauge

Senior Member
I've found, sometimes, that some flashes can be pushed too far forward in to the hotshoe and the contacts are lost. Pulling it back just slightly until you can hear/feel the pins click in fixes it up. Just something to check because I've run in to this with a few flashes myself.
 

Newstech

Senior Member
Well. Seems as though the problem was indeed mechanical, not electrical. Upon examination with magnifier it appeared that the springy side contact on the flash wasn't coming all the way out, missing by maybe half a millimeter. So, I opened up the foot and found I had to utterly disassemble it to get to that contact. Springs flew, tiny screws rolled into the carpet, a wire broke off and had to be resoldered. Eventually fixed and reassembled. Now pushing the test button or taking a shot makes the orange charged light blink. But the strobe no longer fires. It was fine the day before. %}%^! Pretty sure problem isn't in the foot. I think I somehow broke a connection inside the flash body. Murphy's Law. Dunno if I'll tackle that. Thanks all for your thoughts.
 

WayneF

Senior Member
Dunno if I'll tackle that.

Attempting to be realistic instead of sarcastic, but one more thought.

You can buy this antique flash on Ebay for $10 or $15, so how much trouble is it worth? What do you have when it works? Of course, you'd really much rather have an inexpensive new flash (like Neewer VK 750 II for $50), that will do all of the features that your camera today can do, like iTTL (and more power too). Seems day and night better.

So perhaps there could be some sentimental value, but from a usability aspect, is it really worth it?
 
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Newstech

Senior Member
Quite right, Wayne. It was more a matter of pride -- can't I make this thing work again? And your note arrived as I was reading comments here about the Neewer. I've needed to pinch pennies lately but I think there may be one in my future. Looks pretty sweet.
 

Newstech

Senior Member
Annnnd, just to wrap things up ... I opened up flash, found a broken solder connection leading to strobe tube, reattached. It works again! (Can't imagine why it chose now to break.) My apologies for thinking I had a problem with the D3200. But maybe someone will learn something from this saga. :D
 
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