canon eos rebel 2000 and vivitar 285

Hello everyone,

I recently purchased a Vivitar 285 flash for my Canon EOS rebel 2000 camera
because of great reviews and price.

I have to admit that I am quite novice to the science of photography, but I
am learning

I having the following problem. If Canon full auto mode, and the external
flash attached, the camera sets my shutter speed to something ridiculously
slow, such as 1"+ for normal lighting conditions, such as moderately lit
house. I am currently using my canon 28-80 mm lens. The camera sets the
f-stop to 5.6 which is compatible with the flash settings I am using.

I have played around with the camera in manual modes. The camera has 3
major ones, aperture priority (f stop for the lens is set on the body),
shutter speed priority and full manual. In aperture priority you set the f
stop and the camera figures out the shutter speed. In this setting, the
camera still uses an incorrect shutter speed. In shutter speed priority, the
camera seems to work fine since I am setting the shutter speed.
Interestingly enough, the camera usually sets the f stop to 5.6 in this mode
as in full auto mode. And to top things off, the camera display suggests
the shot will have perfect exposure in this mode. If use the same exact
settings in full manual mode as I did in shutter speed priority mode, the
camera predicts that the shot will be underexposed.

the vivitar flash has a light meter. if you let off a test flash, the light
meter will tell you if you have sufficient lighting. Of course, the
sufficient light indicator says that my lighting as adequate even the camera
things the shot will underexposed. The problem does not happen with the
built-in canon flash.

Do I have a defect here? Or was the vivitar flash designed for manual
operation? Am I doing something wrong?

thanx,

dmitry

 

I am answering my own question....

Apparently, the vivitar 285 HV flash is incompatible with Canon's EOS
cameras.

Dmitry