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[OM] Re: Vivitar 2500 guide number?

Subject: [OM] Re: Vivitar 2500 guide number?
From: Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 22:25:13 -0700
iddi wrote:

>I found an old Vivitar 2500 (zooming head, bounce/tilt, 2 auto exp, full,  
>and 1/8 power) flash at work in the rubbish pile, and immediately "saved"  
>it with permission of boss. 
>
Free is always a Fang, if the item works.

>It will be a nice supplement to the T32.. Now,  
>what's the guide number? The users' guide makes no mention of it, and  
>googled values range from 50 feet to 120 (which seems awfully high,  
>certainly it doesn't appear stronger than the T32). Anyone have a definite  
>number? I'm guessing 50ish, at the 50mm setting, ISO100. The 1/8 power  
>feature, coupled with bounce, might work well for indoor candids... Will  
>try it out w/ a roll of b/w. Thanks.
>
The guide number will, of course, vary with zoom setting. The easy way 
to figure out the GN of any flash with a manual setting is to set iso to 
100 in manual, read the distance opposite f2 and multiply by 2. So, for 
example on a T32 in full power manual mode, the calculator panel reads 
50 ft. at f2, so the GN is 100. On a Viv 550FD, the calculator reads 12 
m and 40 ft. at f2, so the GN is 24 in meters and 80 in feet.

This derived from the definition of GN. GN was devised long before 
electronic flashes, let alone auto flash, to allow easy calculation in 
one's head of the correct f-stop for flash. Given the GN for your film 
speed, you just divide the GN by the distance to get f-stop. So you can 
just use the formula in reverse to find the GN. Since calculator panels 
don't have f1.0, I use f2 and multiply the resulting distance by 2.

Moose


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