Sunpak Super 383 Flash

This was my first external flash, mainly used with my Canon 350D (About 1/250 max sync speed). After reading around the photography forums, I was between this and the Vivitar 285. The Canon line of flashes were way beyond what my budget was set for, and quite honestly, I was looking to learn and use the flash manually, which meant I would not be taking advantage of the TTL technology as often. The 383 offered light output comperable to the 580EX at a fraction of the price, and offered 3 automatic modes if I chose to be lazy about metering and test shooting. As others have mentioned, the automatic exposure modes are typically accurate, and perform exactly as you'd like whether you use it as direct flash, bounce, or for fill (Although using it as fill flash when your subject is backlit may be tricky for the sensor). I chose this flash over the Vivitar, as I found the swivel head would be much more useful than the zoom, which is still very true today. Like other have mentioned, the battery consumption is about or above "average" (a set of batteries will last you an evening out with friends, but will not last a serious photo shoot), I shoot with the flash occasionally, and seldom need to recharge the batteries. The recycle time, although highly dependant on battery type, is realistically very usable, but occasionally slows me down, which is honestly helpful in promoting me to carefully frame the shot first before pressing the button as a side benefit (a quality over quantity thing). After becoming familiar with using the external flash and becoming familiar with the controls and exposure, I ordered a set of wireless triggers off ebay. Use of the strobe (a flash not mounted to the camera body) has opened up new horizons for me, and has become a whole other tool. The Sunpak 383 is a great budget flash with high output that has been able to fill my needs for the past year. I will be picking up another Sunpak 383 soon to compose more complex lighting setups. It is incredible to be able to do all of this with less money than I would have spent on a single 480ex Speedlite (which has lower light output). Of course different users will have different needs, but as an amatuer, this will be able to fit the bill for the next couple of years to say the least. However, I do have 2 small complaints about the Sunpak 383: 1) The back label with the settings/instructions on the flash has delaminated, and started to look like it is "bubbling up", this is such an insignificant thing considering the price and functionality. You wont get "space age" anything with this, just so you know what to expect. 2) The external trigger port is a miniplug jack that I've heard is proprietary to Sunpak, it is just slightly different enough from the universal size for it not to work with radio shack parts. This became an issue when there was a short somewhere in the supplied wire, and wouldn't fire when using the wireless triggers. I have to Mcguiver and solder something to make it work with the wireless triggers again. All in all, this was a great buy for me, and would recommend this products to others. UPDATE 12/12/2013: Several years later I'm returning to this review. I have since bought 2 more of these sunpak 383's and have put them through the paces. I do not use the automatic modes at all, but use the tilt and swivel very very often. More specifically, I swivel when I shoot portrait and bounce off the ceiling, and tilt when I want to bounce diagonally to capture targets further than 15 feet away. However, as a result of all the tilting and swiveling, one of my Sunpak's recently stopped firing (even though the ready light is lit). After opening the flash to investigate, I noticed that the thin wires that lead from the main body to the flash head have severed at the flex point. After some careful soldering, the flash is back in action. Aside from some wiring woes, I had performed an upgrade to install 3.5mm minijacks into the base of each flash. The flashes are now natively compatible with my Paul C. Buff cybersync flash triggers without the use of a hotshoe adapter. Even after upgrading camera bodies several times and lenses several times, these are still my go-to flashes after many years (I still don't have any ETTL flashes). These Sunpak's still get 2 thumbs up from me!

I have a Panasonic Lumix FZ50 digital camera and, when I use the wide angle extension on my lens, I can't use the intrnal flash (the lens casts a shadow). So, I began shopping for a flash. I was shocked when I saw the prices of the Panasonic flashes for this camera ($300 and $500). After searching the Internet, I found the Sunpack 383 flash. I was a little nervous buying it. I worried it might not sync well or have some defect since the price was so much lower. Well, I received the flash, slipped it onto my camera's hot shoe, and it works beautifully. No glitches and the results are great. I particularily like the 3 automatic settings -- maximum distance, intermediate distance and maximum depth of field. It also has a great bounce flash head that can be pointed in any direction. Reference marks give the exact angle of the bounce. I'm very happy with this purchased and thrilled that I saved quite a bit of money.

I got the Sunpak Super 383 flash as a slave flash for my Olympus E-500 and FL-50 flash, along with the Sunpak slave unit. They work perfectly together for a small strobe setup with or without umbrellas. The paper label on the rear of the flash unit initially looked to be average in fit and finish (the way it is trimmed around the edges) which made me leary at first as to the quality of the flash. But once I used it I never looked back. It is a substantial flash and appears to have a very good quality build and very good operation. It works great as my slave flash with the Sunpak hot shoe flash trigger that mounts onto a light stand. Highly recommend this flash! Also, some digital cameras will get fried with flashes that use more that 6 volts, so this is one of the safer flashes for a digital camera if you would use it on a hot shoe of your camera.

I use this on my Olympus E-500, I was told buy a guy in a camera store that it wouldnt work with my camera, but I read another review on amazon by someone who was using it with their E-500. It works just fine, Im new to flash photography and I wish I hadnt waited so long to get a flash for my camera. I just set my shutter speed to the max sync speed and match the ISO and aperture from the camera to the flash. I use this on my camera, but mostly I use it on a light stand with a wireless trigger and a reflector kit. I have done two photo shoots and taken over 400 shots with it and it works great. Im not sure if this is a common problem with most flashes, but it seems to go through batteries like crazy. I can get about 20-30 shots and it starts taking like 30 seconds to charge up again. Im looking into getting the AC adapter for it.

I have been pleased with this flash. The lighting is very even and the exposure is accurate in the majority of situations. I would give it 5 stars if it weren't for the fact that the switches for selecting mode and ISO are very stiff and hard to slide.

It worked as stated, it was used, but works when needed! First and last time using Sunpack! Stick with the brand of the camera you are using!