Does anyone have a manual for a Vivitar 3500 flash?

[Steve Smith]

I have acquired a Vivitar 3500 and would appreciate some advice from an owner as to its use.

It should be simple but I am confused by the two separate controls on which the ISO is set. I am assuming that only one of them is a switch and the other is just an indicator.

Mine has the Nikon module and the lower switch has a position marked FG. Does this refer to the Nikon FG?

I'm hoping to use it with a Nikon FE2.


Thanks,

Steve.

 

[Sirius Glass]

http://www.butkus.org/chinon/flashes_meters.htm ==> buy the one manual for the Vivitar 3300 and one manual for the Vivitar 3700 and average the two manuals!

 

[Steve Smith]

That could work!


Steve.

 

[Steve Smith]

If anyone has any serious (not sirius) suggestions, the module number is DM/N2

Non serious (and sirius) comments are welcome too.


Steve.

 

[Mike Wilde]

I had /have the 4600 and 5400 (I think). All used the same dedication modules.

The DM stood for dedicated module, although, wierdly enough there was one called DM/S that was a standard single centre pin hot shoe, and an inlet for a Vivitar specific plug to PC plug for use with a cold shoe too.

I am pretty sure the /N2 designatio would be a second generation dedication module for Nikon cameras.

There is a selector switch on my DM/M for Minolta the shoe to tell the fals to run as manual, run with one of two settings that used the photo cell in the front of of the dedication module, one to use the off film metering of the TTL sensor system of the camera, and one to know the power output down from full manual by about 5 stops to allow the thing to keep up with a motor drive.

The on dedication module photocell guide scales were shown on the back of the flash relative to film speed to tell you the effective range and proper aperture to use.
There was a little yellow triangle symbol that gave the aperture settings and effective distances versus aperture for the motor drive mode.

I hope this information helps you figure out how to use your product.

 

[Steve Smith]

I hope this information helps you figure out how to use your product.

Thanks. I think I have it now.

I found a manual for the modules on the Butkus site. I think you're right that the N2 is s second generation Nikon module. It has an FG setting which works for the Nikon FG and FE2 and a couple of others. I think the FG was the first (or one of the first) to use TTL flash metering.

According to the manual, switching it to FG should make it work in TTL mode - but strangely, the other end of the switch is marked for manual/TTL which should also work.

i.e. if it has a flash attached which can give the stop signal to the flash, it will work in TTL mode whereas if this signal is not received (not sent) it will fire at full power. The other settings are controlled by the on board sensor.


Steve.

 

[Chan Tran]

Thanks. I think I have it now.

I found a manual for the modules on the Butkus site. I think you're right that the N2 is s second generation Nikon module. It has an FG setting which works for the Nikon FG and FE2 and a couple of others. I think the FG was the first (or one of the first) to use TTL flash metering.

According to the manual, switching it to FG should make it work in TTL mode - but strangely, the other end of the switch is marked for manual/TTL which should also work.

i.e. if it has a flash attached which can give the stop signal to the flash, it will work in TTL mode whereas if this signal is not received (not sent) it will fire at full power. The other settings are controlled by the on board sensor.


Steve.

The FG may be the first Nikon where in TTL flash the camera sends out the quelch signal to shut off the flash. The first TTL Nikon was the F3 but it sends out the light value to the flash so the flash has to determine when there is enough light to shut itself off and also the ISO information must be sent from the camera to the flash or else has to also be set on the flash.

 

[Steve Smith]

I have just tried it on my FG. If I put the ISO switch to the FG setting and the power switch to M/TTL, it appears to work. If I start wide open and gradually close down the aperture, I will reach a point where it will not signal that enough light has been received.

If I then increase the ISO on the camera, it will then reach a point where it will show that enough light has been received again.

Therefore, I think it's working and I have it set up right. I assume it will work the same way with the FE2.

but strangely, the other end of the switch is marked for manual/TTL which should also work.

I was wrong about that (I wrote it at work without the benefit of the flash in front of me) These are on two separate switches.

I assume that if you wanted to use it as fill flash, you would have to set the camera's ISO dial to a faster speed than the film you are actually using... although that would make the camera's meter wrong when trying to measure ambient light.

I initially thought that if you were using e.g. ISO 100 film and had the camera set to 100, you could set the flash to 200 or 400 for fill flash but the camera will still think it is controlling the flash for ISO 100 film. It can't know what the flash is set for.

EDIT: Just confirmed this. If it's switched to M/TTL, it is only TTL if the ISO switch is set to the FG setting. At all other settings of ISO on the switch, it fires full power in manual. It only uses the ISO setting in one of its three auto modes.

Perhaps it's better to use one of the coloured modes using the built in sensor in the flash for fill light.


Steve.