Skip to main content

2026-05-21 Braun VarioZoom 340 SCA


This flash is a Braun VarioZoom 340 SCA. 
    Back in the March 2010 issue of AllPhotography (Issue-39) I did a write up on this flash—here it is.


The Braun VarioZoom / SCA 340 flash initially drew my eye for the distinctive piece of silver spotted plastic hinged to its fresnel head. Playing with it briefly I could see this flapper thingy was to fire some of the flash power towards the subject when the head was pointed up to bounce off the ceiling.
    This is the same idea as the photo- journalism trick of attaching a card to the head of a Vivitar 283 flash pointed at the ceiling. The result is a soft fill on the foreground while the background receives almost equal balanced lighting from the huge patch of soft light from the ceiling. If you are working really close the bopper card fills the eye sockets and can add a highlight to the eye- ball.
I won’t go too far down the path of comparing the Vivitar 283 to the VarioZoom. 

    The Braun has several improvements in that it zoomed to three coverage’s (28, 45, and 100 mm), the head could pivot horizontally, tilt back past 90°, shows its working distances with tiny red LED’s, can be adapted to specific OTF systems yadda, yadda yadda... Vivitar built units almost as complicated later, but they were slightly different philosophies at work.
Vivitar’s 283 was the professional unit for several generations of photojournalists and many, many amateur photographers. It had dedicated accessories that were well thought out and darn near bullet proof. I have never heard of a Vivitar 283 accessory failing; for that matter I have never heard of a Vivitar 283 failing.
Meanwhile in Europe the German flash philosophy was more aligned with integration with advanced electronic camera systems. They would build a head that had cutting edge power and adjustment that could be coupled through dedicated feet to the cameras.
    

    So, to get back to the Braun flash, it is powered by four AA-batteries, has just two auto ranges (f/4 and f/8) (the Vivitar has four) and can be set from ISO 25-800. 
    Otherwise you can set it to manual (full power flash) or external control from the aforementioned dedicated modules (if you camera has off- the-film flash control you can set the flash to be controlled that way). The operational distance scale runs from 0.4 m (1.3 feet) to 34 m (110 feet). The working range changes with the ISO, the auto aperture and the zoom position of the head. There is a cute flap that when up blocks the two auto settings but shows you a coloured scale of the apertures with different settings of the zoom head in line with the distance scale that moves with the ISO setting. With the flap down you can set the two auto settings and they are illuminated in red LED’s.
The other switch turns the flash off and on. There is a flash ready light that simply glows when the unit is charged up (the Vivitar will start to flash after it reaches full power). There is a green light that will flash briefly if there is enough light returning to the flash’s sensor for it to control the flash illumination. The open flash button is on the flash’s foot. There is a cord plug socket next to this open flash button.
The battery compartment has a battery holder spider that doesn’t actually clip the batteries into place. The Vivitar uses a clip that can hold a complete set of four batteries, so you can slap a complete new set of batteries in while literally under fire. In the Braun unit the spider has to slide down on two rails built into the sides of the battery compartment. It seems built this way to hold the batteries in place exactly over the spring contacts.
I wanted to try testing the Braun’s unique bopper card against the Vivitar with bopper card technique to see if anything separates the methods. I shot a series of photographs. I learned the Vivitar in these conditions was distinctly underexposing. This may be because the Vivitar auto control starts at f/5.6, while the Braun was used at the f/4 auto setting. If the conditions were so close to the units having to fire at full output the camera being set at f/4 for the Braun would allow it to produce correctly exposed results. It is also vaguely possible the use of the Braun’s head at 60° and the unique bopper channels more light directly to the subject.
Having the Braun’s head swivel abilities certainly makes shooting vertical shots with bounce easier. For that matter the swivel and tilt abilities allow you to use walls, white shirts, even a bald head to act as a reflective source of light. This is really handy.
The German flashes are often unique. Several camera club meetings ago Brian brought in a Rollei flash that had separate complete reflectors for different angles of coverage or could be used bare bulb, could be set to work as an auto flash at all apertures and set on the camera slanting forward at almost 45°.
The German flashes are usually distinctive, powerful and expensive (generally at least twice the price of Japanese). 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2026-03-14 - History and Evolution of the Kodak Logo

  While working as a junior clerk at the Rochester Savings Bank, George Eastman first began commercial production of dry photographic plates in a rented loft of a building in Rochester, New York in April 1880. In the next few years, Eastman became very successful and expanded the company several times. His company started as the Eastman Dry Plate Company in 1881, later became the Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company in 1884, and soon after the Eastman Company in 1889. The last name change occurred in 1892, when the Eastman Kodak Company of New York was organized. The company has been called Eastman Kodak Company ever since.  The word "Kodak" was first registered as a trademark in 1888. The letter “K” had been a favorite of Eastman’s, he is quoted as saying, "I devised the name myself. The letter 'K' had been a favorite with me; it seems a strong, incisive sort of letter. It became a question of trying out a great number of combinations of letters that made word...
Post a Comment
Read more

2026-03-20-Manfrotto monopods

  Sometimes collecting is a matter of persistence.       The Manfrotto “GRUPPO” 434SSB monopod (shown top) showed up one day at my local thrift store. They had a price tag of $25 on it. I had bought the lower Manfrotto Compact MMC3-01 monopod at the same thrift store for $3. So I asked, “Why so much?” They answered their “expert” had found it sold for $200 on the internet. I find experts—who almost never clerk in the thrift store, so are unreachable—hard to deal with. There is also the matter someone might actually pay them $25 for a 2.27 kg (5 pound) aluminum pole, so I decided to let the Gods-of-Collecting decide if I was going to ever own it. For weeks I would pick it up, check the price tag to see if they had come to their senses, and return it to the shelf. I did try various clerks to see if they would lower the price, but they said they were not authorized to change prices. I plodded on, week after week without much hope.         ...
Post a Comment
Read more

2026-03-25 The Kiron 70-150 mm F/4

This Kiron 70-150 mm f/4 Macro1:4MC zoom was made by Kino Precision, Japan in 1980. The same company made both 1.5x and 2x extenders for this lens. It is a lovely design featuring a 52 mm filter size —common to many normal lenses—and a constant f/4 at all zoom positions. The f/stops are full stops from f/4 to f/5.6 and from f/16 to f/22 while the other apertures are half stops apart. FOCAL LENGTH RANGE:          70mm - 150mm [2.1X zoom ratio] DIAGONAL ANGLE OF VIEW: 34.3° @ 70mm - 16.4° @ 150mm   LENS CONSTRUCTION: 13 elements in 9 groups WEIGHT (Olympus OM Mount): 460 g (with hood, front and rear caps) The macro range sets in below the three foot (0.9 m) marked distance at all zoom positions but you only get to the minimum 1:4 ratio at 150 mm. Macro starts around a 1:8 macro range at 70 mm. This is the only lens I have ever collected that has the original price sticker on the rear cap. At least I assume it is the original price sticker… It ha...
Post a Comment
Read more