Meleica
Well-known
I am going to use my Vivitar 283 for fill flash purposes on my G2. My question before I start - is the G2 a "hot" shoe or do I need a cable ? If I need the cable - which one for a 283 ? THANKS
Dan
Contax G Lens Page
http://members.aol.com/dcolucci/contaxg.htm
Dan
Contax G Lens Page
http://members.aol.com/dcolucci/contaxg.htm
S
Socke
Guest
the g2 has a hot shoe, it works with my Metz 45 CT-5 and a 32 BCT.
jjb_13
Newbie
It's a good unit but be careful. The Vivitar 283 has been around for a long time and some of the early "made in Japan" models have very high trigger voltages. For example, one of mine triggers with 137 volts accross the contacts as actually measured by my voltmeter and other people have recorded as high as 270 volts. High trigger voltages were fine for mechanical cameras with no internal electronics but it has always been a possible issue for modern cameras. Having said this, I have never actually seen any technical bulletins from Kyocera, or anyone for that matter, on how much voltage the trigger circuit on the Contax G1 or G2 can take without damaging the camera's other electronics (for example: Nikon says my D100 can hadle up to 250 volts). As a contrast, most modern flashes like the TLA series usually trigger with only about 6 volts accross the contacts.
The easiest way to be sure would be to measure the actual voltage used by your unit. Turn the flash on and, after it is fully charged, fire it by using a voltmeter (any hardware store) with one probe on the pin on the bottom of the shoe and the other on the metal contact in the shoe mounting groove on the side of the shoe. If it reads anywhere in the single digits you should be fine. It is my understanding that most of the 283's made in Korea or China have low trigger voltages so if yours is one of those you can probably skip this test.
If you do decide to use it, looking around for the thyristor sensor cord which allows you to take the thyristor off the flash unit and place it in the camera's hot shoe and then mount the flash on an off camera bracket would be worthwhile. KEH in Atlanta usually has them for about $6-7 or so.
Given these caveats, the 283 is a great flash unit for fill - bright, powerful and easy to use.
PS: The link below will take you to a list of just about every electronic flash ever made and their trigger voltages
http://www.botzilla.com/photo/strobeVolts.html
Hope this helps
The easiest way to be sure would be to measure the actual voltage used by your unit. Turn the flash on and, after it is fully charged, fire it by using a voltmeter (any hardware store) with one probe on the pin on the bottom of the shoe and the other on the metal contact in the shoe mounting groove on the side of the shoe. If it reads anywhere in the single digits you should be fine. It is my understanding that most of the 283's made in Korea or China have low trigger voltages so if yours is one of those you can probably skip this test.
If you do decide to use it, looking around for the thyristor sensor cord which allows you to take the thyristor off the flash unit and place it in the camera's hot shoe and then mount the flash on an off camera bracket would be worthwhile. KEH in Atlanta usually has them for about $6-7 or so.
Given these caveats, the 283 is a great flash unit for fill - bright, powerful and easy to use.
PS: The link below will take you to a list of just about every electronic flash ever made and their trigger voltages
http://www.botzilla.com/photo/strobeVolts.html
Hope this helps
Last edited:
Burkey
Well-known
I'm not sure the origin of my 383 but I use it often with my Leica D2 with excellent results. Sometimes on the camera, sometimes handheld. As a side note it works very welll with an Omni bounce.