nksyoon said:
I just bought a Vivitar 2500 on a BIN auction for £9.95. It looks like the maximum size I'd use on an R-D1. Clive Evans who's an RFF member, uses the 2500 on his R-D1s without any voltage problems. The 2500 can be used manually and also has 2 auto f-stop ranges.
The Metz flashes are
much better, though of course they cost
much more. You get what you pay for. The 54MZ-3/ 54MZ-4 and 44MZ-2 flashes have 10 automatic f/stops to choose from.
I had a cheap Vivitar 2800 back in my early college days, and it was
crap at autoflash. Very few shots were adequately exposed. When I got my Nikon SB-20 it was a revelation; in TTL the little Nikon was heaven, but it was also quite good in auto mode. It made me realize the Vivitar was nearly worthless! A used SB-20 might work on a ZI, but you would have to make sure the dedicated Nikon TTL contacts don't short out on the ZI. There may be some adapter shoe you could use between the flash and hot shoe on the camera.
My advice to flash on film newbies is to use color negative or C41 black & white film rated at 1 + 2/3 stops to 2 stops below rated ISO. Use slow flash sync speeds indoors to get some background detail. When printed, you will get much more open shadows and less harsh highlights due to the tonal compression effect of well exposed color negative film. If you prefer traditional black & white films, overexpose 2 stops, then underdevelop the film 20-50% (you will have to do tests to see what works best for your film/developer combo).
I don't know if you can do similar tricks with digital cameras, but you can contrast correct post exposure easily in digital.
