The old law, the law of diminishing returns, still applies. Also to photographic equipment - TTL hot-shoe flash specifically. There is very little difference between a photo taken with my modern Nikon TTL speedlite and my old thrysistor controlled Sunpak electronic flash gun dating back to 1980. Please don’t test my theory by using just any old flashgun on your DSLR! Some of the old flashguns used a trigger current of more than 300v. Not a great idea to apply this to your DSLR’s circuitry designed for 7,5v.
The main differences between the two are:
1. The Nikon connects directly to the camera’s light meter to control the intensity and duration of the light flash. The Sunpak on the other hand uses a built-in thrysistor to cut the light flash when it estimates that enough light to secure effective exposure has been generated.
2. The Nikon can be adjusted via a system of menus and sub menus. The Sunpak can be adjusted via a number of sliders and dials.
3. The Nikon should in theory be able to do a better job of reading ambient light, including backlighting, and it does. The thrysistor sometimes misjudges the situation but less frequent than I expected.
4. The Nikon is fully automatic. For the Sunpak I have to manually adjust the camera’s aperture.
5. The Nikon can be used as master or slave to be used off camera. The Sunpak has to be fired via a sync cord or inexpensive optical trigger.
Is the Nikon better than the Sunpak? Yes it is. I would however like to get back to my point that the law of diminishing returns is applicable. A lot of time, cost and effort allowed flash to progress from burning magnesium to an electric spark that could be controlled to provide a measured amount of light. Pushing on, the Nikon has had the benefit of 30 years’ further development and it costs more than four times what the Sunpak would cost, had it still been available. That is thirty years’ development at four times the price to gain little in final image quality. The Nikon will eventually be replaced. It will probably take much more development and cost to be able to provide a more advanced, more expensive flashgun that will result in even less gain in overall image quality.
This is probably why Vivitar re-launched their classic, the thrysistor controlled Vivitar 285. (Exactly the same as the original but with the trigger voltage reduced to a level acceptable for use on DSLR’s. I used the price of the Vivitar 285 as approximate price for the Sunpak to make the comparison.)
The main differences between the two are:
1. The Nikon connects directly to the camera’s light meter to control the intensity and duration of the light flash. The Sunpak on the other hand uses a built-in thrysistor to cut the light flash when it estimates that enough light to secure effective exposure has been generated.
2. The Nikon can be adjusted via a system of menus and sub menus. The Sunpak can be adjusted via a number of sliders and dials.
3. The Nikon should in theory be able to do a better job of reading ambient light, including backlighting, and it does. The thrysistor sometimes misjudges the situation but less frequent than I expected.
4. The Nikon is fully automatic. For the Sunpak I have to manually adjust the camera’s aperture.
5. The Nikon can be used as master or slave to be used off camera. The Sunpak has to be fired via a sync cord or inexpensive optical trigger.
Is the Nikon better than the Sunpak? Yes it is. I would however like to get back to my point that the law of diminishing returns is applicable. A lot of time, cost and effort allowed flash to progress from burning magnesium to an electric spark that could be controlled to provide a measured amount of light. Pushing on, the Nikon has had the benefit of 30 years’ further development and it costs more than four times what the Sunpak would cost, had it still been available. That is thirty years’ development at four times the price to gain little in final image quality. The Nikon will eventually be replaced. It will probably take much more development and cost to be able to provide a more advanced, more expensive flashgun that will result in even less gain in overall image quality.
This is probably why Vivitar re-launched their classic, the thrysistor controlled Vivitar 285. (Exactly the same as the original but with the trigger voltage reduced to a level acceptable for use on DSLR’s. I used the price of the Vivitar 285 as approximate price for the Sunpak to make the comparison.)
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