Vivitar 285HV Auto Professional Flash

I started out buying more expensive Canon flashes but didn't need the E-TTL features. Based on a web review, I bought a couple of Vivitar 285HV's and used them with my existing off-camera triggering system (which consists of Elinchrom Skyport radio triggers and Wein optical hot shoe triggers). All of my existing triggers fired through the hot shoe of the flash and have worked with a variety of flashes, including older Vivitar 283 flashes.

However, the 285HV is triggered on a different contact point than most flashes. It works fine on-camera, but doesn't work at all with any of these remote triggering options.

I've found that you need to use the trigger port on the side of the flash. Wein peanut slaves have a high failure rate, but Sonia triggers seem to work much more consistently well with this flash.

Once your system is working, these will fire consistently well. They don't recycle as fast as some of the more modern and expensive designs, but if you take your time and compose each shot well, you should be just fine. I've been replacing all of my other flashes and standardizing now on the 285HV for my field gear.

I use these for semi-professional fashion and art photography and it often surprises people to see me using such humble looking equipment and yet I get great results from them.

Great flash, works well. I love all the settings. the flash isnt too hard and bright. Only con is that there is no swivel head. Which isnt a biggie.

Took a little soldering and a little work but I have my vivitar's hard wired to my ebay triggers. This solves alot of problems. These things are BRIGHT. Really great output for a flash running on alkalines. There built like a tank. Shipping was extremely fast. I do plan on purchasing a few more in the future.

This flash is a good value. For less than $100, you get 4 levels of manual power, 3 levels of autoexposure (which do work well) a tilt-zoom head, a pc sync socket, and relatively fast recycle times. I would love to see this flash with a swivel head.(that's why only 4 stars)
It looks a little boxy compared to the canon and nikon flashes, but the light looks just as good! If you need TTL you're going to have to pay for it. If you shoot in manual mode, this flash will give you control and consistency.
Over all I am very pleased with this flash, in fact, I just bought another one!
For more info on using this flash, visit strobist.com

I've had this flash about a month now. I've been pretty happy with it and it does everything I need to do with an off camera flash. Great price.