Aug 17, 2008 09:15 AM
9954 Views
First I have to warn people that some early Vivitar 283 flashes have dangerous Sync voltages which can fry your digital camera circuits. Any sync voltage above 9V (DC) will damage digital SLR’s. Don't use older 283 flashes with newer digital cameras (SLR or not)!
The SYNC voltage has nothing to do with how much power a flash has. Analog film cameras did not get damaged by high SYNC voltages (sometimes as high as 200v DC!) but today’s sensitive digital SLR’s will. Once damaged -- you’re usually looking at a repair bill of about Rs. 20~30, 000.
The newer model -- Vivitar 285 HV, is a similar professional flash and sells for about US$120 in New York City. Or about Rs. 10, 000-12, 000 in India. The Vivitar 285HV _is_ safe to use with Digital cameras, unlike the older 283 model.
These flashes are very powerful (Guide No. 120 @ISO 100) and are completely manual. The vari-power module that the 283 had is continued in the new 285 so you can set flash power manually by click stop from 1/16 all the way to full flash power. The calculation dial on the side is just to calculate ISO and aperture settings -- it doesn't control anything.
There are few flashes sold nowadays which lets you set power manually like this -- but the downside is that you have to know exactly what you are doing since it is all manual. With a digital SLR of course its easy to check your results after the fact ;-)
Few flashes in the market have this much power and yet cost so little. These are simple flashes -- no computerized interaction with the camera, no auto-zoom, no P-TTL or i-TTL, nothing.
Consequently these flashes cost US$120 while large computerized TTL auto-flashes from the major companies (Canon, NIkon, Pentax, SONY) will cost upwards of US$250~450.
Some people I know in the US and UK use these as portable monolight strobes with stands and umbrella reflectors for Shaadi & on-location photography setups -- very lightweight and convenient and you don't have to worry about access to a plugpoint (which is needed for monolights). They use modular 4AA battery packs and you can buy spare packs -- so you can pop a recharged AA pack in real quick and have the flash ready to go if you run out of juice. I use rechargeable NiMH batteries for mine which I charge using a standard 4AA type charger.
The only negative is that the flashhead does not swivel sideways so mounting these large flashes to your DSLR flash-mount is inconvenient (you can't take vertical flash shots in weddings that way). But this is a minor niggle. Overall these are fantastic values for the money if you're into semi-professional Shaadi photography.
When using these as slaves in studio setup -- you have to supply and attach the peanut slave sensors (Wein peanuts) to each Vivitar 285 (there are jacks on the side) so they can fire once your built in flash fires. You can also mount them on sensor-flash-mounts from a company called SONIA in India.
I hope I've described the features to all your satisfaction. Be warned though -- this is a product for semi-professional or professionals. This requires significant amount of configuration and tweaking to get the best results.
