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Small flash for aria

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CAn anyone recommend a good flash for the Aria?
I would prefer to have a small, reasonably priced flash that will do TTL. Will use it mainly for fill-flash.
Thanks for your input!
 
> I use Sunpak and one of the older Contax TLA 30's. I'm happy with both and the Sunpak's cost a lot less. Jeff
 
> Hi,

I bought a tla 30 a couple of months ago for £50. I used it for a wedding and very happy with results.

Regards

David Moore
 
Susan, I have been using a Hanimex TZ1-34-C/Y TTL module with my RX, 139Q and G2. I bought this many years ago and had a problem with a leaking battery, which severely damaged two of the battery terminals so after cleaning out the crud, I put it away in a drawer to be repaired later (about 5 years as it happened). I bought a TLA200 last year to use with my RX and was a little disappointed with quite of lot of rather washed out looking photos, particularly close ups. I decided to get the Hanimex out and repair the terminals to see if it a) would still work and b) was any good. It did still work and to my considerable surprise produced, on average, better photos than the TLA200. I therefore, uniquely for me, sold the TLA200 for more than I had bought it for. The Hanimex has a tilt and zoom head with diffuser holder and to be fair, could more accurately be described, as nearer to medium sized rather than small but it obviously has first class electronics. It produces just as good flash photos, within the limitations of its range and basic TTL facilities, as my huge and very expensive Mecablitz 45CL4/SCA3208 combo. Wilson
 
> > I use Sunpak and one of the older Contax TLA 30's. I'm happy with> both and the Sunpak's cost a lot less.

Me too! Except my Sunpak is one of the big hammerhead ones - the TLA30 can be had second hand for very reasonable prices if you look around , its also not to big and has full TTL dedication of course..... Steve
 
I've found that any Yashica brand "dedicated flash" that has the flash ready contact to be very handy - and they are all reasonably priced. The flash ready contact signals the body that there is a flash attached and adjusts the shutter speed so there's less chance of overexposure, especially for daylight fill-in flash. With non-dedicated flashes, the camera does not adjust from the ambient light levels.
 
I have a 44 MZ-2 Metz flash. It works very fine in TTL mode with my RTSIII and my 139Q both. It's like the TLA360 but much cheaper (including SCA 3802 Contax adaptor, and in Barcelona). There are also some other Metz flash (32 Z2, 32 MZ-3 if you need a lighter flash than TLA3609, or 54 MZ-3 if you need a more powerful flash) that support the SCA system.
 
Susan,

Seems like you already got tons of recommendations, but noone mentioned another important issue here. Getting small flash is not always a good idea. I have an Aria and have been contemplating getting the small flash as well. After much thinking, I decided not to. Why? First of all, because in all situations where small flash won't do - I will need a bigger flash. Which would mean - I would need to have two flash units. That means - more money out the door and still, when I take with me the small flash and not the big flash it would mean that if I run into situations where bigger flash would have been more useful - I will be sorry I didn't carry along the big flashhead instead. So, eventually I may end up carrying BOTH units, which makes little practical sense. Then, I would start carrying only the big one and the small one will collect dust. Thus, what's the point?

Now, what small flash often doesn't give you? Fast recharge times, tilting and rotating head, various bounce adapters, flexible and easy to use flash power adjustments and more control modes (e.g. Auto, TTL, full-manual, reduced power settings, etc), secondary head (often with light-reduction filter), higher light-source point (no red eyes, guaranteed, less direct light into eyes of your subjects as well - thus less annoying them).

So, I have Metz 54MZ-3. It has tilting and rotating head, secondary flash head with "switchable" light-reduction filter, different TTL modules (I also had pentax system for a long time and canon for a short time, so it was useful that I didn't have to buy new flash for each of these) and I also have bounce-adapter card for it that I use most of the time. It doesn't balance too well on Aria, but considering Aria's design - almost any decent flash won't balance well. But it's something that takes getting used to, after that it's okay.

Only really small and light flashes will work okay on Aria as far as weight balance is concerned, but it will be way too restrictive in my opinion. Considering that flash photography is fairly complex and takes a lot of practice to do well, getting some dumb and small flash might be a bad idea.

That's just my 2 cents.

Mike.
 
Hi Mike .. a good 2 cents worth!

Considering Susan's original requirements, I think the TLA30 will fill the need. It is a "cracking" small flash, with most of the features you mention in the larger guns, built in. If you need more separation/angles from flash to camera, there are many extension leads that will allow this, with the both the TLA 30 or TLA 20.

Is GN30 enough? Well! Over the 17 years of Contax use, with many models and lens combinations in my kit over those years, I can't remember many occasions when I wished I had more. Granted, I haven't done much studio portraiture work, but I have found this flash to be versatile enough to cover anything from small aperture macro work to “happy snappy†family shots, mainly on 100 ISO film.

I often wonder where the appeal of this flashguns successors’ comes from when you look at their specs and price (!). It's a bargain, and when seen (infrequently!) for sale "secondhand", are snapped up quickly by those that know!

Cheers, Bob.
 
Thanks to all for your help...I love this forum!
I'm leaning towards the TLA30 or TLA20 because of size and cost. Not having seen either of these in person, can anyone tell me if they are "plug and play"...can I just turn them on and shoot or what? What if anything is needed to do fill flash?
Thanks again for all your helpful input!
 
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