I have just bought my first flashgun. Couldn't afford to fork out £100-odd quid, so just bought this old timer for £20 (Minolta fit so will go on my Sony A350). Will make me learn how to manually adjust the flash setting as this is a pre-digital age flash so TTL will be alien to it. But at least I can put diffusers on it, tilt it, remove it from camera body, fire it over my shoulder or off a reflector, anything is better than the horrid in-built flash!

The older-timer I rehomed!

Any tips on how to manually set these things would be much appreciated!

I have just bought my first flashgun. Couldn't afford to fork out £100-odd quid, so just bought this old timer for £20 (Minolta fit so will go on my Sony A350). Will make me learn how to manually adjust the flash setting as this is a pre-digital age flash so TTL will be alien to it. But at least I can put diffusers on it, tilt it, remove it from camera body, fire it over my shoulder or off a reflector, anything is better than the horrid in-built flash!

The older-timer I rehomed!

Any tips on how to manually set these things would be much appreciated!

If you look at the Sticky in this Forum on Flash photography it might help a little. A couple of posters gave some great links and hnts. I certainly learnt a lot, especially the home made reflector idea.

Nice!

And believe it or not, manual flashes really do have their uses. When you start playing with off-camera strobes (when you have time to shoot a given subject), they're dirt cheap and you get exactly what you want out of them