I have seen this product and wish to use it on my Canon 50D with a Vivitar 283 flashgun. These are quite powerful and this gadjet is to reduce the trigger voltage so the electrics are not fried. Has anyone used it, and does it work? Also this product looks the same for all cameras, but are more expensive for e.g Canon, or Nikon. Is this just to charge more for the same item?

I would not use and old style flash gun on modern digital cameras the voltage acroos the points will indeed fry the electrics. Have a look at the Yougnuo range of flash guns Great functionality and not too expensive

The 283 and 285 require an adapter to hold the 4 AA batteries. This is because there is an available battery pack NC-3 (NiCad) that works with the Charge-15 rapid charger. Loose AA batteries cannot be used without the adapter known as AP-1. They are all over eBay and quite reasonably priced.

Hi, the flash in question will not work in TTL mode even though it has contacts on the bottom that may indicate that it could...... so it will work in auto or manual mode but not adjust itself. All adjustments will have to be made manually.

I assume you're asking about the 283, not the DF-283 which is compatible with digital cameras.

As for the 283, yes, if you put an adapter such as the Wein Safe-Sync between the camera and the flash. Under no circumstances should the flash be mounted directly on the camera.

No the 283 is not compatible with your camera. The 283 is manual only and not TTl. The canon flash is also not compatible with your Olympus. You need an olympus compatible flash.

the nikon D80 has a 250 volts safe range and i have the same issue but readin on the internet i learned that yo can now the voltage of your flash with a voltage metter ond the hot soe.

Vivitar 283 has diferent ranges of voltages depending on the year of fabrication so older ones can achieve 300 volts and earlier have 230 volts so the best is to get a vivitar 285hv for about 75dollars or a safe sync for about 55dollars, you can find all on ebay or other brouser the safe sync converts up to 400 volts to a safe 6 volts that are yust the normal voltage for digital flashes.

I do have the same unit that I am currently using on a EOS 10D. It works fine for me. It lso operates on my EOS 350D but does not flash off quite bright enough on this camera in very low light.The unit was previously paired with a canon EOS 5 film. You can contact me at [email protected] for required information.

Buy distilled water.

Try to open the flash apart.

Pour distilled water to unit and blow dry or just set it near sunlight until dry.

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Using Vivitar 3200A flash gun on a DSLR is risky for the following reason. The trigger voltage of a DSLR at flash hot shoe that takes it to its TTL (through the lens) circuit is less than 10 volts, it is about 6 to 8 volts in the recent DSLRs. The trigger voltage generated by Vivitar 3200A at full charge flashing is around 180 volts (max). That is a fatal dose for a sensitive DSLR TTL circuit. This high voltage flash gun will work endlessly, the only damage is to the TTL flash circuit. When you attach a TTL flash to the DSLR after using Vivitar 3200A for sometime, your TTL flash will not communicate with your camera. It will be just another ordinary flash without any auto functions. There is a Wein adapter that you can fix b/w your cameral hot shoe and the vivitar flash gun that is said to reduce the trigger voltage that passes into the camera. Try it if you get it. Without this gadget it is better not to use non recommended and non TTL flashes on latest DSLRs.

Please check the trigger voltage.
What, how do I do that, you said!!!!!!!!!?

Here they are:

1. Four fully charged or new batteries into 283.
2. You needs a DVM (Digital Volt Multimeter).
3. Set DVM: DC scale, higher than 10 scale.
4. Black Lead to black DVM and Red Lead to red DVM.
5. Turn ON the Vivitar 283 and wait until light turns Green.
6. Place Black Lead to Outside Silver Contact of the flash.
7. Place Red Lead to Center Silver Contact of the flash.
8. What is the voltage reading? Read the max. V.
9. Anything under 8VDC will be fine.
10. Some versions will be high.

Hope they are helpful to all photographers.

Truly,
Alexander
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