Digitek DFL 002/003 – Speedlight Flash Gun review and How to use a Manual Speedlight

This review is for the actual Digitek 002 model; however this may also apply easily to the 003 model as they have the same specifications.

Advertised specifications:

Guide Number: 38 m (100 ISO)

You can easily increase the guide number if you need to by increasing the ISO. For, example, my D3100 gives good performance up to ISO 400, after which there appears consistent noise.

If the parameters of the exposure triangle are increase by one stop, the guide number increases by multiples of 1.414 (square root of 2); with the exception of shutter speed.

E.g., If ISO is increased from 100 to 200, the guide number increases to 38 x 1.414 = 54.

So how do you use guide Number?

Guide Number = FOD x Distance from the Subject.

OR

FOD = Guide Number / Distance from the subject.

Example, if your GN is 38 and distance from the subject is 4 metres, the f number for proper exposure should be 38/4 = 9.5.

If distance is 10 metres, then, FOD = 38/10 = 3.8.

You’ll have to open up your aperture when the subject is far to get the proper exposure.

Of course, these aperture values are assuming that you are in low light, and ambient light isn’t contributing much.

If you can’t go below f/4 in your lens, you can compensate for the guide number by increasing the ISO by one stop from ISO 100 to 200.

You get the idea. That’s how you use this manual Speedlight.

This speedlight does not have High-speed Sync. So if you take photos with shutter speeds faster than sync speed, you'll end up with a picture like this.

Using flash with camera set more that its sync speed 1/200

Does that mean you cant free motion faster than sync speed? (1/200)

Definitely you can!

Just set the shutter speed to the sync speed and you'll get amazing results by using flash to freeze motion.

The way this works is like this : - Small flash power equals shorter exposures.

This picture was taken at a sync speed of 1/200th of a second, but the flash was triggered for approx. 1/10000th of a second by lowering the flash output to 1/8 power. You will have to switch off lights for this to work effectively. The only light should be from the flash.

Droplets from the Shower @ Sync Speed using flash to freeze motion

Recap --

The Digitek DFL 002 flash at full power should last for 1/200th of a second. The least powerful flash lasts for 1/20000th of a second. These are as per specifications on the manual that came with the Speedlight.

Therefore you can use the flash to freeze motion even though your maximum sync speed is 1/200.

To do this, just set your shutter to 1/200th of a second or less than your sync speed. Sync speed is the safest way to go.

-- End Recap

Coming back to the review.

The Digitek DFL 002 Speedlight has eight stop reductions in its flash capacity.

The build quality is good for the price and the Digitek DFL 002 flash gun rotates for 0 to 90 degrees in the vertical and 0 - 270 in the horizontal, which is good for bounce flash and also to incline the optical sensor towards light if you are in slave mode.

Speaking OF MODES:

There are three modes in the  Speedlight:

M: Manual flash. The flash triggers when you release the Shutter. The flash is mounted on the hot shoe of the camera for this to work.

S1: Flash triggers if it senses another flash, probably from another flash or from the built in Pop up flash. Orient the flash using the stand which comes with the speedlight on the subject according to your lighting needs and you are good to go, thereby controlling the optical slaves witht the popup flash.

S2: Pre-flash cancel. Use this mode when you are using the Pop up flash in TTL or another Speedlight which has TTL and you want to use this manual speedlight as an Optical slave. This mode makes the speedlight ignore the first small TTL flash.

It is to be noted that DFL 002/003 does not have TTL and only can be used on manual flash output conrol.

I guess that is it. It is a fairly good Speedlight and works best if you know how to use it. I feel that the batteries drain a little too quickly if you use it consistently at full flash strength, but that's expected.

Just get a good high capacity 2500+ mAh battery so that you have a good cycling time.

There is a red LED indicator which switches on when the flash is ready to be triggered. The recycle time under good battery conditions is approx. 3 seconds for full flash strength.

This flash does not have strobe/multi-flash capabilities.

The red LED blinks if there isn’t enough battery power to trigger the flash.

What else should I say?

I think I've said enough. Feel free to let me know if you are in doubt of any kind.

So, let me show some pictures taking using the flash. For demonstration, let’s bring in stunt girl and Happy family.

Flash direct in face.

Flash at face of stunt girl - I exaggerated the shot on purpose to show how bad this could be.  

Bounce Flash from side.

Happy family - Side light from flash bounced off wall

Flash pointed at the background

Happy family - flash on the wall making picture float in air

Grapes reflecting Flash because of the ice frosting on their surface. 

Grapes reflecting Flash because of the ice frosting on their surface:

Did you notice the grape on the top that didn't reflect any light? That's because I washed the frost off after taking it from the fridge. If you have noticed this, power to you!

I guess that's it. If you have a comment or a question, leave a comment.

Happy flashing!