The Return of a Classic

UPDATE: Note: There have been some quality control issues with the Vivitar 285s since Vivitar was bought out by another company. I would consider the LumoPro LP120 as a better alternative.
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To say that the Vivitar 283 and 285 flashes were regarded as workhorses would be rather like calling the VW bug just another popular small car in the 70's.

Consider this little factoid:

Vivitar introduced the 283 in 1972. By 1976, they had already produced their 3,000,000th unit. It's actually a ceremonial flash, made of gold, and it sits in the office of Jim Wellington, who is a Big Cheese at the company.

Jim has been with Vivitar since portable flash was a small pile of magnesium powder. Okay, maybe not quite that long, but Jim has been around the block a few times.

I spoke with Jim last week to get the skinny on the reintroduction of the 285HV. The 285HV is basically a pimped-out 283 that also offers a zoom head and full manual control - just the way we like it. 285HV's are also safe for your digicam, with a ~6v trigger voltage.

PLEASE NOTE that older 285's which are NOT designated as "HV" are NOT voltage safe and can fry your digital baby. Be warned.

The Vivitar 285HV, and its less-versatile sibling, the 283, have been a staple of off-camera lighting for more than a generation. But newer model flashes have gotten more computerized, with TTL functions and wireless IR capability. But they have also gotten price tags to match, heading north of $300 each.

Which is why last year when I started the site, I recommended scrounging for old Nikon SB's. They offer reliable, (and variable) manual flash with a PC jack without the $300 price tag. And at the time of my writing, you could snag them for less than $50.

Alas, the notion of off-camera manual flash gained a tad in popularity over the last year. Those same flashes now regularly go well north of USD $100 - if you can find them. As a side note, I recently picked up a couple of used SB-26's on eBay and you chowderheads bid me past the three-digit mark. Serves me right, I guess.

But now, Vivitar has also noticed the resurgence in off-camera manual flash and has reintroduced the classic workhorse Vivitar 285HV.

Some stats:

• Full manual control: 1/1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/16th power
• External synch terminal
• Bounce head
• Zoom head
• Guide number of 120
• Low (less than 6v) synch voltage to protect your camera

In short, pretty much everything a strobist needs - for under USD $100, brand spankin' new.

Here's the guided tour. As always, click on a pic for a larger version.

Up top, you'll notice a filter slot for cut gels. No rubber bands or velcro needed. Nice touch. FYI, you'll have to build the freebie samples up a little around the edges with gaffer's (or duct) tape to avoid light leakage. If you center it, the loss of light is negligible. Or you can always cough up a little moolah for a real gel sheet.

From the side, you can see the manual control dial. This may seem anachronistic, but it gets you very close to the right exposure before you fire your very first chimping shot. Just fine tune the aperture from the TFT screen on the back of the camera and you are ready to rock, Holmes.

You set the ASA and the dial does the math. Totally mechanical, yet linked to both the selected ASA and the flash zoom position. Schweet.

Speaking of zooming, here is the mechanical way it happens. Noted on the flash is a simple "Normal, Tele and Wide" setting. No zooming motors to wear out, either.

It ships with a diffusion panel to cover your superwide, too.

Also note the power input jack on the side. You can power this thing with (internal) AA alkalines, Ni-MH's, just about anybody's external high-voltage pack, or Vivitar's rechargeable internal batt packs. Ni-MH's are working just fine - and fast - in my tester unit.

There is a mechanical switch to dial in your manual power. With the neutral density gels in your free sample packs, you could easily get 1/2- (or 1/3-, or 1/6-) stop control, down as many stops as you want beyond 1/16th power.

There are four auto ranges, but we are really not interested in those, I hope. Amazingly, it is about the only needless thing that we are paying for in the flash, from an off-camera lighter's perspective.

It ships with a ~6" synch cord that gets you from the proprietary synch jack to PC male. Just add a PC extension cord (MPEX has the 15' PC male - PC female cords for $12.95) and you are totally connected for off-camera flash if your camera has a PC jack.

MPEX also has a cord that goes right to a hot shoe. Paramount makes Vivitar-fitted cords, too. The Vivitar fitting is superior to a standard PC fitting, IMO.

Speaking of that, here's a neat little accessory, if you are considering this as a second (or third) light: The Wein "Peanut" Microslave. It's $20, and will fire your 285HV in synch with another light.

The connector on this little slave is pure hybrid genius. It fits both the Vivitar-style jack and a PC-male cord. Nice thinking.

They are tiny, too, and plug right into the side of the 285HV. I have been very happy with the sensitivity of mine. You can always improve it with a bit of foil as a tiny reflector if need be. But that is usually not necessary.

If you have struck out in your quest for cheap, used Nikon SB's (they are getting more rare now - sorry) the 285HV is a great solution. Cruising the Flickr pool, I have noticed that the skate rat photogs are all over them. What I love about them is (a) they are totally reliable (b) they are reasonable and (c) you can actually find one. Or two. Or three. No prob.

Vivitar is cranking up production on the flashes, which were quietly reintroduced a couple of months ago. MPEX has a pile in stock, with more a' coming.

He also has something else which is newly arrived that he actually had designed and manufactured just for us but I am getting ahead of myself. That's for next week. I'm psyched.

Way to go, Moishe. And way to go, Vivitar.