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Vivitar 285 voltage - is it safe - Page 2

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Posted: Fri Jun 29th, 2012 18:02

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Joined:	Sun Apr 1st, 2012
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I would agree which is why I bought the Wein protector which only cost me £12.
http://www.weinproducts.com/safesyncs.htm

I prefer to use my camera unattached by wires but to use my Bowens IR sync unit or wireless slaves made by Pocket Wizard or Yongnuo.

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Posted: Fri Jun 29th, 2012 21:22

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PRSS

Joined:	Fri Jun 22nd, 2012
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Thank you everybody.

As Robert said, I shall not risk my camera just for the flash. I already have tow old slave units which still work perfectly well. As richw said, te on camera flash could act like a fill light.

I did try this out and it works fine for the photography, so I shall go by this way. This forum is teaching me a lot of useful stuff. Glad that I joined this.

With best regards
PRSS

Posted: Sat Jun 30th, 2012 13:05

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Doug

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I think I speak for all when I say we're glad to have members asking good questions which generate relevant and useful responses (not to mention the fact that we seem to have stayed on topic for once ;-)

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Posted: Sun Nov 11th, 2012 12:37

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steve of oxford

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I can comment on this, having once blown a TTL (transistor-transistor logic) trigger circuit on a digital camera, fortunately a cheap one.

My advise is follow the general consensus here: either DC isolate the flash and camera, via slave trigger etc, or just don't risk it at all.

i wouldn't go by specs, even if they appear safe. Camera manufacturers 'could' make trigger circuits compatible with older blitz weapons, but they go for low level TTL/cmos, and often opposite polarity for no reason other than deliberate obsolescence, i.e. forcing you to buy a new flash gun.

Dislike the manufacturer's strategy as much as you want, but personally I think the risk is too great to start experimenting.......you 'may' have a 9v trigger on your old flash, but those old guns were capacitive energy store devices rather than direct inverters, so you can never be absolutely sure there isn't a bit of back-EMF spiking.... potentially enough to zap things. Only takes an old and weak decoupling capacitor somewhere and you've got a spike risk.

Posted: Sun Nov 11th, 2012 13:43

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Robert

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Thanks Steve, we are of like minds on this one. ;-)

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Posted: Sun Nov 11th, 2012 14:02

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steve of oxford

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Robert wrote:
Thanks Steve, we are of like minds on this one. ;-)

LOL, I remember as a young kid I had an old Hanimex flash gun, Dixon's special probably. Just for fun I would short the trigger connector with a paperclip and make the gun fire.....usually you got sparks across the connector, so you can imagine what would happen if that was plugged into a DSLR.

On a separate note: a few years go I had a massive mecablitz anti-personnel flash on a Rolliecord 5A. That thing had a separate lead acid battery in a bag with shoulder strap. It was tremendously powerful, in fact there was a real 'thump' when the tube fired.

All was fine until one day there was a hell of an ear piercing crack sound, a really bad smell, and bits of flash head stem casing scattered around the room....the capacitor had exploded and blown a hole in the stem.

This is what happens when you buy high voltage devices that contain capacitors from a jumble sale.

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