Vivitar Vintage Flash

Does anyone have any information on a Vivitar 5600 Auto Thyristor flash? I would like to know the following: Does it swivel, as well as bounce? What auto fstops? Guide number? Is it simular size to the 285HV? Thank you. I have tried to search everywhere and cannot find this information.

Anyone, I really need to know if the Vivitar 5600 will allow auto fstop selection without having to use TTL. Thanks.

I did some searching too, but came up empty.
Are you considering purchasing this unit? If so, you may need to get your hands on it to answer your questions. If it's an e-bay add or something like that, give us a link.

Thanks Curtis. Yes it was an eBay item, but the guy just cancelled the listing. I have been using the Vivitar 285HV, but it does not swivel. I'm pretty sure that the 5600 does swivel. I would also believe that the 5600 can do auto f stop settings without using TTL, however I would like to know for sure before I buy one. Thanks again.

Probably not timely, but you might try this for an old manual:

http://www.craigcamera​.com/

If I still have my old Vivitar 5200 and manual, I can at least get you started with some information! Let me see what I can find at home.

You guys are the greatest! Thanks for going way out of your way for me.

I found the manual for my Vivitar 5200... head tilts but does not swivel. In Auto mode with ISO 100, your selection of f/stop is from f/2 to f/5.6
The head has a manual zoom setting from 28mm to 85mm (35mm film AOV coverage) and the Guide Number is between GN70 at 28mm to GN118 at 85mm.

Thank you Wilt. That looks fine, except that it does not swivel. I wonder if it's possibe that the 5600 does swivel, if it doesn't, I will stick with the 285HV. The whole point of wanting another flash was to have the bounce and swivel. I have a Metz 60 CT that does all this, but it is big and bulky. Thanks again.

If you want an automatic flash that will do bounce & swivel, take a look at the Sunpak 383. There's a review in the product reviews stickies. $80 at B&H.

Don Powell wrote in post #2724501
Thank you Wilt. That looks fine, except that it does not swivel. I wonder if it's possibe that the 5600 does swivel, if it doesn't, I will stick with the 285HV. The whole point of wanting another flash was to have the bounce and swivel. I have a Metz 60 CT that does all this, but it is big and bulky. Thanks again.

Unfortunately I don't know what additional features (if any) the 5600 has over the 5200...it might simply have more power, period.

Thanks again Curtis and Wilt. I just found out that it does bounce and swivel. Yes the Sunpak does look good.

The nice thing about the 5600 is the replaceable foot and head. I have a bare bulb head for mine that's really nice as well as my standard tilt swivel head. There's also a power zoom head, and different feet for various cameras. There's also a basic optical slave foot which I have as well.
It's a good flash with lots of accessories. I doubt the trigger voltage is safe for most canons but the cheap ebay 4 channels work good.

Actually, the trigger voltage for the Vivitar 5600 is safe for Canon digital cameras! I tested the pins with multiple foot modules and they all come in under 6 Volts! I was really surprised, pleasantly so, because it meant I could use the flash on camera on my Rebel XT.

I found a Canon foot module on KEH for $5.00 which can do Auto. It has the middle and rear pair of pins, so no TTL, and definitely no E-TTL, but the auto does seem to work, if only a little bright.

There are at least two different heads. One completely manual head and one auto zooming head.

This modular system is a great idea. I don't understand why Vivitar hasn't kept it up, making new E-TTL and i-TTL foot modules for Canon and Nikon. Even if it required an entirely new body and head module system, if it could cost less than new Canon and Nikon flashes it would be great! They could even throw the weird Minolta/Sony foot modules in there.

Thanks for the post. I just bought a Vivitar 5600 off eBay and I have just started to play with it. It looks good!

There has been so much confusion and incorrect information about using older flash units that have higher voltage than 6 volts. Here is a thread I started back in Sept. 06.

Apparently there are many who still think that the allowable sync voltage on the hot shoe of the Rebel XT is only 6 volts. THIS IS NOT TRUE! I also bought the safe sync when I bought the my XT, and now I find that I do not need it on all of my flash units. These include Vivitar 285 HV, Metz 60 CT1, White Lightening Ultra, and Speedotron studio units. I finally called Canon and talked to Todd and told him that I had read that Chuck Westfall, the director of media and customer relations had said that all the newer cameras have electronic sync circuits and they all allow up to 250 volts at the pc and the hot shoe. These include the XT, 20D, 30D, 5D, and all the 1 series. Todd confirmed that this is true. Off comes the safe sync. The crappy thing does not have a way to tighten it, and it has a way of becomeing loose and losing contact. GOOD RIDDANCE!