Vivitar DR-7000 LED Macro Ring Flash

In my quest to set the Macro world on fire I finally got all the stuff I thought I needed. A decent camera, a 40mm micro-nikkor, and a ring light/ ring flash.



Boy did I mess up. Every flash on every setting, on every power level, with D40 and with D3200 turned out like picture 1. Pure white.


Using it as a light, this is my result.



Embarrassed to even show this but if anyone has a suggestion ........it wouldn't take much to improve these results.
Like, what setting on the command dial am I supposed to use? ( I tried most of them )...and how do I keep the onboard flash from popping up? ( I thought I read that the onboard flash will not pop up if a flash is mounted in the hot shoe. ) ....and ad infinitum .....Thank You

You need to narrow your aperture a significant bit so that you don't end up with photo #1. When shooting macro to get any amount of focus depth you'll need to be shooting at ƒ16 or narrower (my recommendation, others will give you advice as well). This is the reason macro lenses typically allow for a much smaller aperture than non-macro lenses. I like to shoot macro in Aperture Priority mode or full manual mode. Manual is typically the easiest since you can easily adjust your shutter speed for the desired level of exposure.

adot45 said:

and how do I keep the onboard flash from popping up?

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Use any of the PASM modes.

try this setting.

f/16, ISO 100, Shutter speed 1/250 then adjust as needed, I see your white picture was at ISO 800??? Why??? You need to switch to Manual to get the most out of it.

f3.5, ISO 800, 2.5 shutter... that's enough to get a white-out picture with a flash every time! Scott's above settings are where I start with macro as well, then I tinker from there.

Scott Murray said:

try this setting.

f/16, ISO 100, Shutter speed 1/250 then adjust as needed, I see your white picture was at ISO 800??? Why??? You need to switch to Manual to get the most out of it.

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When in manual mode, I set 1/250..f16..and the ISO says 100........when I take the picture and put it in my EXIF viewer it reports 1/250, f16, ISO 1600 and that flash has not fired.

When I try to adjust ISO like it says in my spiffy new book, ( button on left side od LCD ) it just gives me information about manual settings.

Sounds like you have Auto ISO on and the camera is figuring you don't need the flash since it can achieve the proper exposure by pumping up the ISO. Check to make sure Auto ISO is off.

OK, I see where the ISO was on auto.....I set it to 100 and here is the result. Now I adjust upwards?

10 Gauge said:

Sounds like you have Auto ISO on and the camera is figuring you don't need the flash since it can achieve the proper exposure by pumping up the ISO. Check to make sure Auto ISO is off.

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Yes, that is exactly what was going on 10 guage.......after I got over my tantrum I started going through the menus to see why I couldn't set the ISO myself.....

First kill your -.33 exposure compensation, you don't need that at the moment.

Did your flash fire in those pix? Hard to believe it fired with them coming out so dark.

Guys... I believe max flash synch on the d3200 is 1/200.

ScottinPollock said:

Guys... I believe max flash synch on the d3200 is 1/200.

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Good call, that may be the problem.
@adot45 Set your shutter speed to 1/200s and try same photo again.

I at least have learned how to set the ISO myself and I guess that's something.
I just took pictures at 200 400 800 1600 and 3200 they were becoming lighter but still indistinguishable as pictures......and all the bottoms were clipped off. When I went to transfer them to the folder on my desktop, I got "Catastrophic failure" message so don't have them. This has rapidly become unfun.
I don't want to take up any more of anyone's time with this. There is no doubt in my mind that I could produce good photographs with this flash and my old Photomic T's but that was then and this is now.

adot45 said:

I at least have learned how to set the ISO myself and I guess that's something.
I just took pictures at 200 400 800 1600 and 3200 they were becoming lighter but still indistinguishable as pictures......and all the bottoms were clipped off. When I went to transfer them to the folder on my desktop, I got "Catastrophic failure" message so don't have them. This has rapidly become unfun.
I don't want to take up any more of anyone's time with this. There is no doubt in my mind that I could produce good photographs with this flash and my old Photomic T's but that was then and this is now.

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This forum exists for the sole reason of being able to help one another out.... Let's keep at it, I want to see that ring flash in action producing some good images for you.

Go back to ISO 100, ƒ16, and try a shutter speed of 1/200. Before taking any more shots, put your card back in the camera and format it to try and clear up any errors it may have on it.

First of all, shutter speed is unimportant for macro flash, working distance, aperture, and ISO are all that matter. I still think you're having a flash sync issue (shutter closing before flash reaches full output). So slow it down (it won't affect exposure), your light is coming from the duration of the flash and not the length of time the shutter is open. Try 1/100.

Start at ISO 100. If that is too dark open the aperture.

BTW, What power levels are available on the flash, and what do you have it set to currently?

Ok... after a little research... this is not a flash, but an LED ring lite with some kind of auto flash "MODE". Who knows how long it takes to come up to power, and what the "auto" settings are doing.

Put it in manual, output full, and test at 1/60, iso 100, f16 and see what you get.

Or better yet, get a real flash. This thing would be behaving the same way on your photomics.

OK, took the dog around the block and feel like tackling this again. I appreciate your help guys, really. I made the adjustments as suggested and may see a light at the end of the tunnel. Also changed the subject to one less reflective and I think that may have helped too.



I had another picture but it was vertical....?

Am trying to find where to change exp comp back to 0 right now 10 gauge....

ScottinPollock said:

Ok... after a little research... this is not a flash, but an LED ring lite with some kind of auto flash "MODE". Who knows how long it takes to come up to power, and what the "auto" settings are doing.

Put it in manual, output full, and test at 1/60, iso 100, f16 and see what you get.

Or better yet, get a real flash. This thing would be behaving the same way on your photomics.

Click to expand...

Interesting discovery on the "flash" / light.

Do you have the manual for it? Does it say anything about sync or shutter speeds? It's very possible that your shutter is ahead of the light.

Try Scott's suggestion of 1/60s shutter.

Sent from my HTC One M8 using Tapatalk

adot45 said:

Am trying to find where to change exp comp back to 0 right now 10 gauge....

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Press the i button in lower left of camera back, and use the joystick to navigate the settings screen.

Set it to zero and try again at f11 and f8.

Also, I think your flash has some kind of auto mode (can't much info on it online), and you don't want this thing trying to figure out the proper exposure so look to see if it can be set to manual; where you control its output level.