Instructions for vintage Sunpak 220-s flash

[Michael L.]

Hello all,
If any of you can furnish me with instructions for the use of the above flash with an Olympus OM-10, I shall be very grateful.
I have been doing available light B&W photography for well over 40 years with rather vintage 120 and 35 mm cameras, an old OM10 being my favourite shooting companion.
Recently I was given the above flash of comparable age, and in order not to spurn the gift I should at least give it a try. It came, however, without any instructions; I was only told that it had sat on top of another OM-10.
In short: how do I use the flash? In particular, what setting should I choose on the vertical slider to the left in the attached picture of the back of the flash? I would rather not have to worry about guide numbers and inverse-square law calculations, so I am hoping there is a simple way to make the camera automatics take care of these things; will setting the exposure selector to AUTO achieve that?
The OM-10 instruction booklet has nothing to offer on using non-dedicated flashes, and I have searched the internet in vain for information about the OT220-S.
I live in Copenhagen, Denmark, and I'm new to this forum (and very happy to have found it!), so please bear with my inadequacies (linguistic and other). I hope this is the right forum.
Best regards,
Michael L.

 

[MattKing]

Michael:

Welcome to APUG.

Somewhere on the flash there will be a sliding switch or rotatable dial that allows you to set the flash to either manual, auto range bright green, auto range blue-green, or something designated by the light blue sun.

The chart on the back shows a table with a range of film speeds and corresponding distance and aperture pairs.

The cells which are coloured bright green show the aperture to set for that auto range and the corresponding film speed. As an example, ISO 100 film requires f/4 if you are using that auto range. The numbers in the left two columns indicate the maximum distance to use for that range - 18 feet in the case of the bright green auto range.

The blue-green auto range permits use from farther away (up to 36 feet) but you have to use an aperture which is two stops larger (f/2 for ISO 100).

If you don't wish to use the auto functions, you can use the individual cels in the table to determine which aperture to use for which film and distance combination.

 

[Michael L.]

Thank you very much, Matt, for replying so quickly. I'm certainly grateful for your very lucid explanation.
I now look forward (without trepidation) to trying out the old flash at a forthcoming gathering of friends; it should prove an interesting change from my usual routine of underexposing and push-processing fast films to secure shots in that kind of situation. I'll probably wonder where all the grain went.
Best regards,
Michael

 

[John Koehrer]

The first reply is correct But you need to set the camera to it's sync speed, usually around 1/60th sec on a horizontal travel shutter.
Most cameras will have these indicated with a lightning bolt or SS in blue.

 

[Michael L.]

Thanks, John, for that vital additional information. It sent me back to the camera manual which has this to say about using non-dedicated flashes:

"For use with non-dedicated electronic flashes: Set the mode selector to the MANUAL ADAPTER position and the Adapter at 1/30 sec. (Although the flash is synchronized between 1 and 1/30 sec., 1/30 sec. is most recommended to avoid camera vibration.)"​

Elsewhere on the Internet one finds the advice that the Manual Adapter must be set to 1/60 sec or slower; on my camera, both speed settings seem to fire up lightning symbol in the viewfinder.
I shall still have to experiment a little and let the resulting negs resolve the doubt. Thanks again for your input.
Best regards,
Michael

 

[John Koehrer]

If you use faster shutter speeds, you will expose only part of the negative. Each faster speed will give you a smaller section of the neg with proper exposure.

 

[SpunkySpine]

Hello Michael,

I'm a newbee here and just roaming around the site I see your post.
Although I have neither the Olympus camera or this Sunpak flash I can point you to an interesting pdf file. It is related to dedicated Sunpak flash on Olympus cameras. Just a bit of interpretation on reading the file is required...

First, Here's the link to the pdf: http://www.cameramanuals.org/flashes_meters/sunpack_interface_module.pdf

Go to page "OT-1D FOR OLYMPUS CAMERAS"
Automatic operation: Second line, "Mode selector switch"
Set the Mode... to the ' * '
Substitute one of the colored choices, Yellow or Blue, in place of the ' * '

Continue on from there and I believe you will get along just great.

Enjoy!

Sometimes I'm brilliant, but most times I'm just myself.

 

[Michael L.]

Hello SpunkySpine,
Thank you for taking an interest in my problem, and for the link to the pdf file on M. Butkus' site. I was already familiar with the file, and while Butkus' list of Sunpak flash instruction manuals certainly is very impressive, it unfortunately does not include the OT220-S model of which I suddenly found myself possessed. Furthermore, none of the listed flashes resemble my own to any helpful degree; for instance, the 220-S offers no film speed selector (cf. the picture in my original posting), while most of the models listed by M. Butkus do.
I think the 220-S must be very old indeed, for I haven't found any mention of it anywhere on the internet.
With the generous help I have had from kind users of this forum I am pretty confident that I shall be succesful in this my first venture into flash photography. Not that I shall make a habit of it, though - it's nice to try something new, and a flash might actually come in handy some day, but I think I shall stick to taking pictures by available light. That offers enough challenges to last a lifetime.
All the best,
Michael