Not working... Firefly + Vivitar 285

Techniques and equipment.

Moderator: Moderators

Re: Not working... Firefly + Vivitar 285

Postby Dave Bunnell » Jan 21, 2009 11:23 pm

I recently revisited the topic of the Vivitar 285HV and fireflies as another cave photographer had asked about slaves that would trigger them properly. I found that all my Wein and Gibson slaves worked fine on them, but this caver also had been unable to trigger them with fireflies.

In researching the Vivitar I found one crucial difference between the 285 and the newer 285HV, and that's in the "trigger voltage," or the voltage across the hotshoe contacts. In the older ones it can be very high, on the order of a couple hundred volts. The HV model, however, is designed to have a very low voltage across the shoes in order to prevent damage to digital cameras, which purportedly can be fried by high trigger voltages. I don't know all the electronics involved in the Firefly but suspect that it is this lower trigger voltage that makes the difference. It would be interesting to see if other flashes that don't work with the firefly also have such low trigger voltages. Of course, as Bryan found, you can take the thing off between shots, but what a pain, especially if its sitting out on a rock somewhere that you had to do a delicate climb to place it...
NSS News Editor
Dave Bunnell
Prolific Poster
 
Posts: 164
Joined: Sep 6, 2005 10:19 pm
Location: Angels Camp, California
  

Re: Not working... Firefly + Vivitar 285

Postby potholer » Jan 22, 2009 4:24 am

With the 285HV, would the Gibson slave work with the jumper (shorting link) in either position, or just in one position?
potholer
NSS Hall Of Fame Poster
 
Posts: 381
Joined: Nov 9, 2005 7:29 am
Location: UK
  

Re: Not working... Firefly + Vivitar 285

Postby Dave Bunnell » Jan 30, 2009 7:30 pm

Potholer,

I just tried one of my Gibson slaves on a Vivitar 285HV with the jumper in both positions, and it seems to work fine in both. I was triggering with the Wein IR "flash trigger," so was happy to see that this device that I just acquired worked as well with the Gibsons as with the Weins.
NSS News Editor
Dave Bunnell
Prolific Poster
 
Posts: 164
Joined: Sep 6, 2005 10:19 pm
Location: Angels Camp, California
  

Previous

Return to Photography and Videography Forum

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users