flash question

I have a canon canonette and an olympus 35rc and wanted a single flash for both as I don't use flash enough for either to warrant one a piece. I'm looking at a sunpak 383 auto. It has the bounce and swivel features that I like. It doesn't have TTL but it's own auto feature which, unless I'm misunderstanding this, means that the strength of the flash is something that the flash determines itself without input from the camera which means it can be used interchangeably on different brands of cameras. Is that right?

I just googled it and it DOES have TTL, according to the link I ended up at. Otherwise, it seems to be a 283 with low-voltage trip for the modern cameras. The part I saw was that it apparently has variable power MANUAL control. This is perfect, because my personal opinion of an automatic flash is pretty low. But it's there in an emergency, which is nice. Using that sucker all day on manual with that variable control would eean a whole role of perfect exposures. Looks like a nice flash to me, for sure. As far as the TTL, I would think it has a setting to just ignore that. Hope I've covered what you need to check out. Otherwise just find a couple of EBAY 283's so you'll have a spare when the flashtube finally gives out.

The 383 doesn't have TTL exposure is controlled by it's own sensor. So, yes it can be used on various cameras and provide "Auto" exposure.

The 383 offers 3 choices of apertures in its auto mode. When using in manual mode, both the Canonet and Olympus RC has the guide number mode which you could set the power ratio on the flash for a certain guide number and then set that on the camera lens as well. As you focus the aperture will automatically to the correct aperture for the focus distance.