Oooohh! Went over to dinner tonight and talked to dad about photography and stuff. He gave me a little Rollei 121BC flash unit that he got from a garage sale for a doller. Very sexy little unit (front, back darker view of the back (but with the scales slightly more visible)). The scales are pretty cool. Old school, but cool. Set the ISO of the film you’re using in the top left (or DIN in the top right if you’re really old school), then the scale along the bottom will tell you how far the flash will reach at a given f-stop. In the setting I have it in the picture at ISO300 (not that that really exists, just happens to be where the dial is set) you’ll have light for 40 feet at f2.8, 15 at f8, 5 at f22, etc.
It’s not an approved Pentax flash unit, but seems to work fine. I can’t find a manual online for it, so I’m not sure how “smart” it is, but there is a sensor on the front that is most likely for controlling the amount of flash it gives out, versus using the scales on the back. The Pentax P30t manual doesn’t say a whole lot about the flash unit, or what it’ll do, so it’s up to me to experiment more! Might take it into the camera shop and see if they have enough knowledge about the older hardware to tell me anything about it.
Also learned how to take multiple exposures on my SLR (the aformentioned P30t). Using a tripod of course, expose the film (stopping down 1.5 or so (I think? Dad, is that right?)) and then you hold the film rewind button on the bottom down while you advance the shutter (with the film not moving because the button is pressed) and re-expose. Cool trick! The more and more I learn about this camera and it’s capabilities the more impressed I am with it and the less desire I have to buy an auto-everything camera (not that I wouldn’t mind having one of course). Pretty much every review I read about it has nothing but good things to say. Still, I would like to slowly build up a collection of better bits. Maybe start with a really good flash unit, then some different/better lenses, then a different body, etc etc. Just like my computer gear.