Vivitar 285HV Auto Professional Flash

This is an awesome vintage flash for today's digital SLR's. I like that it is compatible with my Nikon D-80. The only thing I wish it had was a swivel-head. But with a hot-shoe cable for off-camera flash, it doesn't really matter.

I love this flash. I use it as part of my strobist setup. A real workhorse with great power. I am thinking of getting another soon.

As an amateur photographer on a tight budget this flash is by far the one of the best bang for my buck purchase I have ever done.

I like it's simplicity. You want to adjust the range, then just pull/push the flash head. You want to control the power just turn the knob up/down. If you feel lazy you can always use its four auto-settings using the same knob.

Another thing that sold me to this flash is the head, its so easy to cut a strip of gel and just insert it right-in, no messy velcro, no rubber bands.

It is plastic but tank like plastic, an acquaintance accidentally dropped his flash from four feet away but aside from the minor dent, the flash worked fine, try doing that on a $400++ Canon.

Also, if you want to make it a slave, just buy one of those PC/hot-shoe slave adapters for about $16.

I use this flash exclusively on Manual, I never bothered using the auto-settings so am not sure what I missing.

For some reason it doesn't have a 1/8th power level but its not a big deal, all I do is put on some gel to tone down the power and voila.

Some may argue that it lacks the sophistication of the newer flashes like the Canon 580 Ex series but that's precisely why I picked this flash. The new flashes, aside from being way above my budget, have somewhat taken away the fun of experimentation. But then again a lot of folks prefer to point and shoot so maybe the newer flashes work for them better.

So if you are in the market for a cheap but reliable flash then look no further this is the flash for you.

Vivitar 285HV Auto Professional Flash
This is an amazing unexpensive flash that rivals OEM dedicated equipment.
Yet it is not ETTL but just because of that it gives you a full control over what you are doing. I really like it ( as well as uncounted number of photographers in the last 30 years). I only wish it came with a power adapter.

I use products for more than 30 years, and never had one goes bad, I missed their lenses, I do not know why they stop to make lenses, they make goog lenses for affortable price. I have many Vivitar lenses, specily the 100 mm macro, and all others, no one goes bad. I have 2 Vivitar 283 flash, I use them for more than 25 years, and they perform like new, I hope that this 285 will do the same, it is so far so good. Many thanks to Vivitar.