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UltravioletPhotography

Flashgun Test: Nissin Di622 MKII


Timber

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Today I tried my Nissin Di622 MKII flashes with my NEX-6. Well I could only use remote triggering as the flash is the old Minolta Not Compatible With Anything Hot Shoe and the NEX-6 is the new Sony Universal Not Compatible With Anything Hot Shoe :) and my Hot Shoe adapter have not arrived yet *shakes fist at Hong Kong Mail*. The initial tests were so disappointing that does not worths mentioning. As I photographed the unit in UV I quickly understood that the little plastic window on it's front is blocking UV a lot. (see fig. 1).

 

fig. 1 - The Flash Unit in UV. Notice the black screen as it absorbs almost all UV.

nis622_fig1.jpg

 

Since I don't use the flashes for serious work I don't mind to break them :) so I quickly opened up as much as I can to remove this plastic. Putting it against a UV source it further shows how much UV it blocks (fig.2).

fig.2 - The Front screen against a LED UV light.

nis622_fig2.jpg

 

 

Once I had one unit without the screen and one with the screen I've decided to see how they perform in UV. My test environment was our electric intake room :) which is dark, has a nice grey brick wall and most importantly I am not disturbed there (and no other ambient light). I set both units in Slave Mode, with the sensor facing me and the NEX-6 flash unit triggers both units. The NEX-6 flash has very very little UV emission, so it does not interferes with the test. You can also see a small UV LED unit which I've used to help me focus in UV. I used the same settings for all shots which is: ISO 800, f8.0, 1/60. The lens was a Nikon EL-Nikkor 50mm f2.8 old version, with a Hoya U360 + Schott BG40 stack. I was approximately 3 meters far from the wall. In Slave mode the power of the flash can be set in 6 steps. First i set both units to half power (3 bars out of 6), the results did not surprise me, the flash unit with the screen, is next to no emission (fig.3)

fig 3 - Half Power

nis622_fig3.jpg

 

 

 

At 100% (6 bars) the difference is even more visible.

fig.4 - We're going in Full Throttle!

nis622_fig4.jpg

 

 

Next I put both units approx 1m far from the wall and used full power.

fig. 5 - Distance from wall: 1m

nis622_fig5.jpg

 

And one more test at 2m.

fig. 6 - Distance from wall: 2m

nis622_fig6.jpg

 

I also tested both of them in visible light, which shows that the screen is not just blocking UV but also focusing the light a little more.

fig.7 - Visible spectrum

nis622_fig7.jpg

 

So as you can see removing the screen will greatly improve the UV performance for the cost of distance. I could be great for Macro work as it will cover a wider area but only on a shorter distance.

 

The plan is to replace the screen with a non-UV-blocking perspex to avoid dust entering the unit and hopefully I can soon mount it directly on the camera with the Sony adapter. The unit is quite cheap, you can grab one for around £100 on eBay. I find it a little slow as recharging times are around 2 seconds (with proper batteries... £1 batteries might take 3-4 seconds!)

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