Vivitar 283

[astroban]

I have an old Vivitar 283 Flash gun, that I used to use on my Nikon D50, I now have an Olympus OM-D, Would it be safe to use this flash on the camera i want to be sure before trying as I know it can damage the camera if not comparable.




Many Thanks




James

 

[tedolf]

astroban wrote:

I have an old Vivitar 283 Flash gun, that I used to use on my Nikon D50, I now have an Olympus OM-D, Would it be safe to use this flash on the camera i want to be sure before trying as I know it can damage the camera if not comparable.

Many Thanks

James

the Vivitar 282 which I have is rummored to have a hot shoe sync voltage of 300V DC!



The Oly'shot shoe can only handle 24v dc I am told.

Don't risk it.

I use my Vivitar on a cheap radio slave and it works great off camera.



Tedolph

 

[DLBlack]

The easiest answer is not to use it. Vivitar flashes over the long years they have been made has three different trigger voltage. The earliest were 300 volts. The latter on the came out with I believe were 24 tigger voltage. Now the current 283 flashes have I believe a trigger voltage of 5 volts. So a lot has changed during the 30 plus years that the 283 flashes have been made.




You can check the trigger voltage but it is the peak voltage and is is such a short duration that a modern digital voltmeter is needed. There are numerous threads about this.

Another option is to put a Wein Save Flash device between the fkash and the hotshoe. The only trouble is that Wein has this device on backorder.

Another option is to use it remotely and use radio or optical slaves. With radio slaves you can still run into the high trigger voltage issue of older flashes. My Phottix radio slaves has the same low voltage requirement has the camera.

I hope this helps some.

Dave

 

[KCK14]

Early 283's had a very high trigger voltage and was fatal to electronic cameras. However, circuit was revised about 15 years ago so that it was as safe as the 285 and later flashes.

If it didn't kill your D50, it is the newer design.

Hook a sync cord to it and short across the pin to barrel with a small metal tool. If you see a spark - do not use.

 

[LincolnB]

astroban wrote:

I have an old Vivitar 283 Flash gun, that I used to use on my Nikon D50, I now have an Olympus OM-D, Would it be safe to use this flash on the camera i want to be sure before trying as I know it can damage the camera if not comparable.

Many Thanks

James

You might get away with it, depending on which version of the 283 you own. You might not. You probably won't. You'll probably fry your camera's hotshoe. I have an old 283 that I use all the time and I have never used it in the hot shoe. I always use it off-camera with a radio trigger.

Read this:

http://www.botzilla.com/photo/strobeVolts.html

Bear in mind that you can get a Neewer TT560 for less than $50 or TT520 for $25 that will work better than the Vivitar 283. My Vivitar had to be modified to allow me to manually select the flash output, something you can't normally do with the 283 but you can with the Neewer or other cheap flashes like the Yongnuo YN-460ii.

 

[tedolf]

KCK14 wrote:

Early 283's had a very high trigger voltage and was fatal to electronic cameras. However, circuit was revised about 15 years ago so that it was as safe as the 285 and later flashes.

If it didn't kill your D50, it is the newer design.

Hook a sync cord to it and short across the pin to barrel with a small metal tool. If you see a spark - do not use.

Now that is a clever cheap way to check for high voltage, low current.

Good thinking!

Tedolph

 

[baxters]

Now that is a clever cheap way to check for high voltage, low current.

No it isn't. You can throw a spark off a 9 volt transistor radio battery.

By the way, for the Original Poster, the D50 was rated for 250 volts*, so it would probably survive use with a high voltage Vivitar 283. Just because that camera didn't get smoked doesn't mean a newer M43 camera will survive. Olympus rated its E1 and E300 DSLR's for 250 volts, but I am not aware of any numbers on later cameras.

My Vivitar 283 goes anywhere between 190 volts (Nimh batteries) to 290 volts (lithum AA's). I use it only with a slave trigger these days.

*Page 109 of the Users manual.

 

[astroban]

Thanks for the replies, you have confirmed what I suspected, not worth the risk.




Many thanks

 

[Allan Brown]

astroban wrote:

Thanks for the replies, you have confirmed what I suspected, not worth the risk.

Many thanks

I use my 283s with my G3 and a safe-sync, optical triggers or radio triggers.

The 283 system, which I have, is very versatile and powerful. Using the control modules, I can vary the light from each.

I have four flash units, several control modules, bounce adaptors, light stands and cables all for under $200. A small studio setup that fits into a camera bag.


So, if you only have one unit, look for newer flashes. If you have the system as I have, put it to use and be careful. It is a very good system.

Allan

 

[tedolf]

baxters wrote:

Now that is a clever cheap way to check for high voltage, low current.

No it isn't. You can throw a spark off a 9 volt transistor radio battery.

By the way, for the Original Poster, the D50 was rated for 250 volts*, so it would probably survive use with a high voltage Vivitar 283. Just because that camera didn't get smoked doesn't mean a newer M43 camera will survive. Olympus rated its E1 and E300 DSLR's for 250 volts, but I am not aware of any numbers on later cameras.

My Vivitar 283 goes anywhere between 190 volts (Nimh batteries) to 290 volts (lithum AA's). I use it only with a slave trigger these days.

*Page 109 of the Users manual.

maybe you could calibrate the voltage by the size of the spark gap?




Tedolph

 

[tedolf]

might be here:

http://www.butkus.org/chinon/vivitar_flashes/vivitar_flash_units.htm



Tedolph