Vivitar 285HV

[Sean Setters]

Joel, that's a question with a not-so-straight-forward answer. I currently own 3 Vivitar 285HV flashes. I purchased two of them used, and one I purchased new. The flash I purchased new died after a few months, and I sent it back to the company and received a replacement. My replacement has been working fine ever since. However, the Vivitar brand was sold to another company after I got my replacement flash, so you can't necessarily count on warranty of a newly purchased 285HV.


Not long ago, there were some really serious quality control issues with the Vivitar flashes. For a very long time the 285 (and later, 285HV) were workhorses that just kept going and going. There are hundreds of photographers that swore by them. Then they moved the manufacturing facility to China, and the quality suffered. Before the actual sale of the Vivitar brand, I think they were addressing some QC issues in the manufacturing process, but I'm not sure how far they got. The company that purchased the Vivitar brand no longer makes the 285HV. Instead, they are manufactured under the Cactus brand as the Cactus KF36.


The shortest answer I can give you is this--if you want a Vivitar 285HV, you might be best served surfing ebay. Usually, a functional 285HV on ebay has already proven that it can take the abuse of regular use, so it's probably a safe gamble to buy it. Because Vivitar no longer owns the 285HV, I don't know how safe it would be to purchase one of the remaining stock from B&H/Adorama/etc because I don't know how or if the warranties would be honored. If you buy the Cactus branded one, at least you have a company to complain to if something went wrong. You might want to talk to Adorama/B&H and see if they'll take back a malfunctioning unit. Also look at the original Vivitar 285. From the way I understand it, the only real difference between HV and the original 285 is that the older Vivitar 285 will probably fry your camera if you put it in the hotshoe. However, if you only use it for off-camera lighting (like I do), that drawback won't be an issue. The older 285s are usually easier to find on ebay...I just bought one last week for less than $30 with shipping.


The one flash I would urge you to avoid for off-camera use is the 430EZ. It goes to sleep after 90 seconds of being idle, and doesn't come back on until you press the test button or turn the device off/on. That can be very frustrating....

[Stephen Probert]

I like this discussion about cheap off-camera lighting. Can someone suggest a cheap option for flash control? Do you have to go with the 580 EX /EX II or the ST-E2 transmitter, or is there something cheaper? I have the 430 EX II, but it can't act as a master. I am interested in getting some cheap off-camera flashes, but I need to control them. Thanks.

[Colin]

You know, I think that's a good direction. We often get embroiled it lens lust or pixel peeping or ISO noise performance, and lose sight of what we can do with tools, as opposed to fretting over which particular device is just a little bit better than the other.


Even in hardware comparisons, I like that this forum often addresses "Better for what?" and makes useful suggestions.


Still, this off camera lighting thing is a whole new world for me, and I think I really like it! If you can vastly expand your capabilities with minimal hardware expense, that seems a whole lot more sensible than worrying about faults in lenses that a my poor old 5D can barely resolve, what with it's mere 12MP spread across a whole full frame sensor []

[Sean Setters]

I like this discussion about cheap off-camera lighting. Can someone suggest a cheap option for flash control? Do you have to go with the 580 EX /EX II or the ST-E2 transmitter, or is there something cheaper? I have the 430 EX II, but it can't act as a master. I am interested in getting some cheap off-camera flashes, but I need to control them. Thanks.
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You say you have to control your flashes. I control all my flashes, either by walking over to them and changing the settings or by having my girlfriend (assistant) do it. Otherwise, I set them up at the power I believe I'll need the first time. Most of the time I'm right on the first guess. That just comes through trial and error, though. Don't be afraid of manually adjusting the power of your flashes. It can seem a little intimidating at first. If you can learn that discipline, then you can get by with much cheaper flashes. Also, you won't be locked in to a specific brand. To me, the difference between fiddling with the buttons on a master flash on-camera (or ST-E2) that I don't even want to fire but only control other units seems a little pointless (and overly expensive) to me. If I win Powerball this evening, then my views may change. But as long as I'm plopping down my hard-earned money on flashes, I can not only live with manual control, I can thrive on it. ;-)

[Colin]

Oneof my first pictures that aren't just of the inside of my houseusingthe vivitar offcamera flash with the cactus trigger (yeah, just used one). This guy was on my kitchen counter on his back, so I helped him onto a paper plate, and made him feel like a star.





Who said you had to have a macro flash to flash macro?

[cian3307]

Colin, I like it! What size is that bug in real life?

[Sean Setters]

He's 237 feet from antennae to the tip of his hind legs. He just got done eating part of Tokyo when that picture was taken....


Or maybe 1 1/2" - 2" I'm guessing... :-) How about it Colin?

[Colin]

Head to rump, he would have fit on a dime, though I'm sure he would have liked to include the length of his feelers, at which point I'd say a nickel.


I ended up with some used Cactus V2's, because that's what I could find, and I was impatient. they seem to work fine. The only time I've seen the flash not fire was when I forgot to turn the receiver on. Sometimes I'm quite the brainiac []

[Sean Setters]

Head to rump, he would have fit on a dime, though I'm sure he would have liked to include the length of his feelers, at which point I'd say a nickel.


I ended up with some used Cactus V2's, because that's what I could find, and I was impatient. they seem to work fine. The only time I've seen the flash not fire was when I forgot to turn the receiver on. Sometimes I'm quite the brainiac [img]/emoticons/emotion-1.gif[/img]
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Wow, I was severely off on my estimation of his size....We have creaturs that look very similar here in TN that show up when it starts getting warmer, and they're positively huge compared to your guy, then.


I had a set of V2s receivers that worked quite well for a good while, but then they started getting a bit flakey on me...so I upgraded. They saw an enormous amountof use before becomingsomewhat unreliable, though, so it's a great (and relatively inexpensive) way to get your feet wet in off-camera lighting.

[Stephen Probert]

You say you have to control your flashes.

Sorry, I guess I didn't mean control...I meant trigger. It sounds like the least expensive way is Cactus triggers....I will look into them. I don't mind working in manual flash mode and I am eager to learn, I just need to figure out what gear to get.


Thanks for your dedication to the strobist topic, Sean. You are a real proponent of this skill on this forum and it is very much appreciated by those of us with little experience.