Mamiya c330 flash

thebanana · Mar 23, 2005

I recently bought a used 330 with the 80mm lens and a flash grip. I am curious as to what sort of flash this camera uses? I can find no reference to flash usage anywhere. The cold shoe mount has a small metal stopper mounted at the rear of the shoe, precluding the use of any of the older flashes I currently own. Can anyone shed some light on this issue for me?
Cheers,

John

glbeas · Mar 23, 2005

The TLRs are traditionally used with the "hammerhead" style of flash on a base mounted bracket and is plugged into the lenses pc socket. If your shoe mount flash has a pc cord it can be used too just as easily. The lens has a switch for different flash mode, but it should be set on X for the electronic. The switch is easily bumped to the wrong setting, so you may want to put a slip of tape or a drop of glue on the switch to keep it in place.

jimgalli · Mar 23, 2005

Probably the most common arrangement is an "L" bracket with a Vivitar 283 and cord to fire it from the lenses PC socket. Some of the Mamiya's were early enough that you had a slider to choose between electronic flash (modern strobe) or flash bulbs. Leaf shutters can "sync" at any speed. Usually the flash itself is the determinate factor and shutter speed doesn't matter. I'm sure there are more sophisticated flashes, but I gravitate towards the old 283. Simple, direct, effective, and tough, just like the Mamiya.

thebanana · Mar 23, 2005

Thanks, I'll look into a Vivitar. However, my other concern is the L-bracket that came with the camera. Both it and the cold shoe on the body have a small metal peg at the rear of the shoe, which seems to prevent a flash from being mounted in the '"traditinal" way. It appears that the flash has to be slipped on from the front of the shoe, and won't slide all the way back because of the peg. Is any of this making sense?

Dave Miller · Mar 24, 2005

I use a Metz 45 CT-3 hammerhead flash with my C330. It came with its own attachment bracket and is equipped with a tilt and swivel head, and a very acurate auto-exposure setting. They are widely available on the secondhand market now that most professionals are diving into digital.

Blighty · Mar 24, 2005

I also use a Metz hammerhead with my C330, which seems like the easiest solution. I also (in preference) use a Mamiya trigger grip with an inbuilt cold shoe, to which I attach a Cobra flash unit. The Cobra unit was fairly cheap, but has a pc cord with it. Despite its cheapness, it gives reasonably good results. The Vivitar unit mentioned above would also be a good candidate. Just make sure the selector switch on the lens is set to X. Regards, BLIGHTY.

Bighead · Mar 24, 2005

I wouldn't use the cold shoe on the camera... From what I read, you can get some flare... I gravitate towards off camera flash with my C330... I use a Vivitar 285... $30-$50 all day on ebay or $100 new.... Great, easy to use flash.

I have used a cheap flash, on camera, to trigger a second flash on a tripod.... I use one of those Vivitar slaves... think I paid $30 for it....

As far as that peg, doesn't it push down?? I'll have to check mine......

David Brown · Mar 24, 2005

IIRC, the shoe on the camera was not actually intended for a flash; maybe for a light meter or other "accessory" ??

As has been said, almost any flash with a PC cord will work, as long as it is mounted on a bracket. Although I've never had trouble with the X switch moving to the wrong setting, half of the lenses I've ever seen have had the switch glued!

Cheers,

David

eumenius · Mar 24, 2005

I assume the L-bracket that came with your camera has an angled cold shoe on its top? Mamiya was making a round reflector for single-use flash bulbs, so that's where you should put it It's angled to prevent the bulky reflector from shadowing the WLF image. Many of old electroniс flashes did have a separate lamp unit and a generator/battery unit carried on a strap, connected with hi-voltage cables. So it's just not intended for usage with modern self-containing flashes, unfortunately I use my C330 with hammerhead Metz Mecablitz 202, put on its own bracket. That's a fine combination, though I am rather missing my pistol grip - it can't be used with this combo, unfortunately.

Cheers,
Zhenya

jimgalli · Mar 24, 2005

thebanana said:
Both it and the cold shoe on the body have a small metal peg at the rear of the shoe, which seems to prevent a flash from being mounted in the '"traditinal" way.

The "peg" was for accessories that had a hollow screw that screwed down around the peg for a secure mount. My 50mm rangefinder for my Universal mounts this way. Seems I remember it has a slot so you can remove it with a jewelers screwdriver.

Woolliscroft · Mar 24, 2005

Another vote for the Metz 45

David.

Konical · Mar 24, 2005

Good Morning, John,

One of the typical problems with flash on a TLR is that it often gets mounted above and to the side of the lenses, especially hammerhead-style units. This results in a most unattractive shadow to the side of the subject. Try to use a bracket which will put the flash directly above the lenses, so that the shadow will tend to disappear behind the subject. I had a machine shop do a custom adaptation of an existing bracket so that my Vivitar 285 could be properly positioned. I think that it's possible to purchase some brackets which will accomplish the same purpose with other types of flash units. With a TLR, the flash unit needs to be far enough forward so as not to interfere with the viewing and focusing.

Konical

thebanana · Mar 24, 2005

Thanks for all the replies. The little metal post I referred to on the l-bracket that I have does in fact unscrew (something I hadn't noticed earlier), so mounting the flash will not be a problem. Cheers,
John

Jeffrey A. Steinberg · Mar 24, 2005

Get the Vivitar 285. It has a nice zoom feature and the variable dial for manual or automatic. It works well with the C330.

The nice thing about the C330 is that it synchs at any speed so you have to think about how much abient (background light you want). The lower the shutter speed, the more the ambient light.

Mamiya c330 flash

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