Went to a thrift store yesterday here in the area that offers a 25% discount on Mondays. They always have a few camera bags behind the counter and I went up and had them pull them down so I could see what was in them. One bag had an off brand 35mm film camera with two lenses and a small flash with no bounce. Tried to open the battery compartment and it was full of leaky batteries. That one was a definite no. The next one had an old Canon AE1 with two third party lenses and a small Sears flash. They wanted $40.00, with the 25% discount that would have put it at $30.00. Still too high so no. Last bag was $12.99, so it came in at $9.75. It had an old Olympus 2.5 megapixel digital camera with an Olympus FL-40 flash. I took a chance and bought it without testing it out. and $9.75 no great loss if it didn't work. Fortunately when I got it home and tested out the flash it worked fine. Score!
I went online and did some research and found that it's a pretty decent flash, It has a Guide Number of 40 and it's adjustable in 1/4 power steps. The head rotates 360 degrees and bounce of 90 degrees. It has a tele and wide setting. The GN of 40 is at the tele setting. The only thing I don't like about it is it doesn't hold the last settings when it's turned off, so I'll have to keep an eye on that when I'm using it. There is one on ebay for over $40.00 right now with 2 bids on it. Amazon has them for over $110. You can check it out here:
I know this flash isn't that powerful but it will come in handy for all sorts of things. Oh and I gave the camera to my 7 year old who loves it. Two Velcro strips later and this thing's in the bag ready for use. As always with used older flashes this thing will never see the hotshoe on any of my cameras but with remotes it'll work just fine.
You never know what you're going to find at the thrift stores. Just make sure that you don't overpay and check everything for battery leaks. If you're unsure and you have a smart phone you can always look something up online before you buy. You can even take in your own batteries to check stuff out. I try to carry 4 AA batteries just for that purpose, I just forgot to put them in my pocket yesterday. I have several flashes that I bought from thrift stores for very little money, some of them I use quite a bit for product type shots, Others work great for on location portrait shoots. Never underestimate those older flashes. Even the ones that can't be adjusted. You can do a lot with them using gels and gobos.
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