Vivitar 283 on M9

[Olsen]

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From the M9 FAQ thread:

 

So, then we can burry that dead dog and go on with our lives....

[rafael_macia]

Just buy a Wein Safe Synd and you are in business.

No worries.

[Olsen]

Just buy a Wein Safe Synd and you are in business.

No worries.

 

Help!

[jaapv]

Just buy a Wein Safe Synd and you are in business.

No worries.

Totally unneccesary - didn't you read the thread?

[rafael_macia]

Totally unneccesary - didn't you read the thread?

 

Looks like I was sold something I did not need.

[brianv]

Then it's teue? Elvis was in the house?

 

Waited 6 hours for the tickets. Of course, this was in 1975. Took my girlfriend and her Mom to the concert. Her Mom saw him in the 50s. I still have the flash, and use it as the "flash that Elvis Saw." But not with cameras with electronics in them.

 

It is a lot of juice to pump in 1 millisecond through an electronic circuit. You have to wonder how much isolation is in place to protect from induced current from a flash that is 30 years old. I would use a newer flash with an electronic camera, one with a redesigned Trigger. The later 283's are redesigned, and the 285's are fine with it. Anything made in the last 25 years or so should be fine. we're not talking much money for a flash.

[Olsen]

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Still; I have been using my two 30 years old Vivitar 283 with my M7, MP, M8 and now M9 - without any any problem whatsoever. Ever! For the last two years I have been using these old flashes with a Quantum 2 X 2 battery with the specially suited Quantum battery cables that for the 283. When worked up hard with this battery the flashes get really hot. - But they work! A testement to how good these flashes are. If you ever see any for sale; grab them by both hands! (I bought one of mine from a 'loppemarket'; a sort of fleemarket/garage sales for 50 NOK) I used them frequently at a family gathering now during this latest weekend, by the way.

 

Sure, rafael_macia, you were sold something you don't need.

[Olsen]

Waited 6 hours for the tickets. Of course, this was in 1975. Took my girlfriend and her Mom to the concert. Her Mom saw him in the 50s. I still have the flash, and use it as the "flash that Elvis Saw." But not with cameras with electronics in them.

 

It is a lot of juice to pump in 1 millisecond through an electronic circuit. You have to wonder how much isolation is in place to protect from induced current from a flash that is 30 years old. I would use a newer flash with an electronic camera, one with a redesigned Trigger. The later 283's are redesigned, and the 285's are fine with it. Anything made in the last 25 years or so should be fine. we're not talking much money for a flash.

 

The 'juice' pumped through a 30 years old Vivitar 283 is less than 1/3 of what any modern camera today can take. Any camera made after 1980! (Or was it 1974?).

 

Just to document that I am not fooling anyone here, I have attached a few photos of my Vivitar 283/Quantum Turbo 2 x 2 and my M9 with the cable set up I used this weekend. And a picture of my Leica bag with the two - excellent - Vivitar 283 flashes and a smaller/cheaper flash that I frequently use with a slave. This is what I always carry with me.

 

These flash light softeners work wonders, by the way.

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[brianv]

I would be interested in seeing some images taken at highest ISO with the lens cap on, shutter set to the sync speed, and the flash being discharged through it and then repeated without the flash on the camera. This would show if any noise was being introduced with the flash discharging through the camera.

[Olsen]

I would be interested in seeing some images taken at highest ISO with the lens cap on, shutter set to the sync speed, and the flash being discharged through it and then repeated without the flash on the camera. This would show if any noise was being introduced with the flash discharging through the camera.

 

If you do that and hold your fingers on the flash you burn yourself...

[brianv]

Don't put your fingers over the flash, just let it fire as normal.

 

I knew someone that used a Sunpak 611 and burned their fingers. It and the Vivitar 292 are more powerful than the 283.

 

The electronic cameras of the late 70s warned against use of direct-discharge flash. I'm not sure when the circuits were changed. As late as 1990, Nikon warned against it.

 

Problems also arise from induced current, will not destroy the camera buy could potentially cause some noise in the Analog end of the image capture. I have seen that first hand. Image capture devices with 14-bit A/D generally do not like small pulses of high-voltage passing nearby as they are acquiring the image. It would be an interesting experiment- test the isolation in the camera.

 

I'm not putting my 283 or 292 on the M9 or M8. I made that mistake with a Konica FT-1. "Once Burned".

 

I did pick up a late model 283 with the redesigned trigger circuit. It was $5 at the local thrift store. Not as good of a deal as the $15 Black Leica III and Chrome IIIa with a Summar.

[Olsen]

Don't put your fingers over the flash, just let it fire as normal.

 

I knew someone that used a Sunpak 611 and burned their fingers. It and the Vivitar 292 are more powerful than the 283.

 

The electronic cameras of the late 70s warned against use of direct-discharge flash. I'm not sure when the circuits were changed. As late as 1990, Nikon warned against it.

 

Problems also arise from induced current, will not destroy the camera buy could potentially cause some noise in the Analog end of the image capture. I have seen that first hand. Image capture devices with 14-bit A/D generally do not like small pulses of high-voltage passing nearby as they are acquiring the image. It would be an interesting experiment- test the isolation in the camera.

 

I'm not putting my 283 or 292 on the M9 or M8. I made that mistake with a Konica FT-1. "Once Burned".

 

I did pick up a late model 283 with the redesigned trigger circuit. It was $5 at the local thrift store. Not as good of a deal as the $15 Black Leica III and Chrome IIIa with a Summar.

 

Both mine are pre 1980. I bought my first one 1977/78. When they were just launched. The other one, bought 2.hand for a song, has an even lower serial no and is far more used and worn. But strictly, I don't know it's age. This 'high voltage scare' has been a typical American issue were several 'redeemers' have launched product into the market to save us all from an imagined/invented problem. Like some quacksalver selling medicine in the old wild west. It would not surprise me if some of them have made a good living on this. Which is fine. Unemployment in the US is gravely underrated.

 

I have used my Vivitar flashes - and even older flashes (among others National and a huge Braun etc.) on a range of cameras from Canon EF, A1, Hasselblad 500C/M, 503, 905, Archbody, Canon EOS3, 1Ds, 1Ds II and 1Ds III, - even on several of my father's old Prakticas. Have never had any problems. - Many years ago I checked with both Canon and Hasselblad that told me that 'there was no reason for concern' regarding 'modern' cameras. This is, at least, 25 years ago. I never did bother to check with Leica, but Jaap has just done that. We got nothing to fear.

 

Have never had problems with noise from flashes, but from GSM phones. Particularly on M8.

[brianv]

Both mine are pre 1980. I bought my first one 1977/78. When they were just launched. The other one, bought 2.hand for a song, has an even lower serial no and is far more used and worn. But strictly, I don't know it's age. This 'high voltage scare' has been a typical American issue were several 'redeemers' have launched product into the market to save us all from an imagined/invented problem. Like some quacksalver selling medicine in the old wild west. It would not surprise me if some of them have made a good living on this. Which is fine. Unemployment in the US is gravely underrated.

 

I have used my Vivitar flashes - and even older flashes (among others National and a huge Braun etc.) on a range of cameras from Canon EF, A1, Hasselblad 500C/M, 503, 905, Archbody, Canon EOS3, 1Ds, 1Ds II and 1Ds III, - even on several of my father's old Prakticas. Have never had any problems. - Many years ago I checked with both Canon and Hasselblad that told me that 'there was no reason for concern' regarding 'modern' cameras. This is, at least, 25 years ago. I never did bother to check with Leica, but Jaap has just done that. We got nothing to fear.

 

Have never had problems with noise from flashes, but from GSM phones. Particularly on M8.

 

 

Only Olsen could make a question on discharge voltage going through a Leica into an Anti-American political statement. Olsen is a Bigot and has been banned from several forums for these types of statement.

 

This is not an "American Scare", was a simple suggestion for determining the isolation of high voltage going through the camera during the exposure. What a thoroughly stupid thing to state. Electricity works the same way around the world. Please do not burn your fingers, rather forget the request.

 

30+ years ago I worked on a custom digital sensor that required the isolation to be improved. The low order bits were affected by noise from a different part of the camera.

 

Use your camera however you want. We would not want anyone to have to spend $5 for a new flash for a $7000 camera. And I do not want an International Incident to break out because Olsen burned his little finger.

[Olsen]

Only Olsen could make a question on discharge voltage going through a Leica into an Anti-American political statement. Olsen is a Bigot and has been banned from several forums for these types of statement.

 

This is not an "American Scare", was a simple suggestion for determining the isolation of high voltage going through the camera during the exposure. What a thoroughly stupid thing to state. Electricity works the same way around the world. Please do not burn your fingers, rather forget the request.

 

30+ years ago I worked on a custom digital sensor that required the isolation to be improved. The low order bits were affected by noise from a different part of the camera.

 

Use your camera however you want. We would not want anyone to have to spend $5 for a new flash for a $7000 camera. And I do not want an International Incident to break out because Olsen burned his little finger.

 

"Electricity works the same way around the world."

 

- This we can agree upon.

[rafael_macia]

Makes me think of what the Argentine poet, Jorge Luis Borges said in his book "An Introduction to American Literature",(1971);

"Americans are morally superior, but intellectually inferior to Europeans."

 

How's them apples ?

[Olsen]

Makes me think of what the Argentine poet, Jorge Luis Borges said in his book "An Introduction to American Literature",(1971);

"Americans are morally superior, but intellectually inferior to Europeans."

 

How's them apples ?

 

Well, Jorge Luis Borges is wrong, although I put him at high regard. First of all, at giving citizens of whole nations - whole continents, general characteristics. There is no such thing. Individuals are different. Both among Europeans and Americans. Having driven across both USA and Europe, several times, it strikes me how similar we are.

[wparsonsgisnet]

Is someone suggesting that we 'Muricans might be wrong about something????