Up for consideration I have four flash units I'd like to offer for sale, each of which is in Excellent to Mint --and perfectly operable-- condition. These include:
(1) Nikon SB-24 (with dedicated Nikon leatherette pouch)
(1) Braun 370 BVC 'potato masher' style off-camera flash (with synch cord and the bracket used to attach the unit to the tripod screw mount on a camera's body)
(1) Vivitar 283 (with synch cord)
(1) Vivitar 2800 (with synch cord)
Accompanying the above will be included one camera hot shoe mount slave unit (brand no longer known after all these years) and two additional long-ish (one coiled, the other uncoiled and probably 3' feet or more in length) synch cords.
Any or all of these might not be directly compatible with many 'modern' digital cameras, but any or all of them could be useful as slaved units in multi-flash setups.
Asking $100 for the whole lot, shipping included. Pictures of any or all of the above if you really want. PM me if you're interested.
Back in my wedding days, I used several Vivitar 283s and 285s for location work with a Mamiya 645. Mechanical shutters have no issue with high trigger voltages, but modern digital cameras will have their flash contacts (rated for 24v usually) instantly vaporized by the high trigger voltages of some older flash units. i.e. the 283/285 series can run as high as 250v + when they fire.
A way to test them is to simply put a volt meter across the flash terminals and read the voltage across them as the unit fires. A simpler to way avoid problems is to use them with some sort of slave trigger unit.
Friend Cany, not trying to step on your sale, just trying to save someone some grief. Sounds like a good value to me. Not a Nikon user, but the SB-24 offered should be worth the price, I think.
Alafoto wrote:
Back in my wedding days, I used several Vivitar 283s and 285s for location work with a Mamiya 645. Mechanical shutters have no issue with high trigger voltages, but modern digital cameras will have their flash contacts (rated for 24v usually) instantly vaporized by the high trigger voltages of some older flash units. i.e. the 283/285 series can run as high as 250v + when they fire.
A way to test them is to simply put a volt meter across the flash terminals and read the voltage across them as the unit fires. A simpler to way avoid problems is to use them with some sort of slave trigger unit.
Friend Cany, not trying to step on your sale, just trying to save someone some grief. Sounds like a good value to me. Not a Nikon user, but the SB-24 offered should be worth the price, I think.
Back in my wedding days, I used several Vivitar 28... (
show quote)
No worries (and thanks), Alafoto. It was clear to me you were indeed looking to save someone some grief by describing the 'why'. You just said it better than I had when I mentioned compatibility issues and that they'd be better used as slaves.
Thanks, I appreciate it. Hope the sale goes through.
Hope you sell the lot. The 283 was my workhorse in the 1970’s and 80’s. We shot for a major rockstar here in NJ back then. The flash never let us down. My buddy had one too. Great flash unit. It’s still firing away!
You cant measure the voltage as the flash fire , just way too fast , but you just do it with the flash on .On a old flash you will see around 100 volts , on newer ones about 5 volts . Dont use the 100 v on newer cameras .
agillot wrote:
You cant measure the voltage as the flash fire , just way too fast , but you just do it with the flash on .On a old flash you will see around 100 volts , on newer ones about 5 volts . Dont use the 100 v on newer cameras .
I've done it with a voltmeter that captures and stores peak voltage.
More info below than anyone probably cares to know about 283/285 trigger voltages. Much easier to use a remote triggering device than build the device shown, especially since most people will use them as I did, as remote off-camera flashes. Lots of power for cheap and much less clumsy to tote around to remote locations.
Not sure if Admin will let me post links here, but here does...
www.instructables.com/Taming-the-high-trigger-voltage-of-the-Vivitar-283/
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