what went wrong? fried peanut?

I just started experimenting with relatively modest, strobist-type lighting. Last weekend I was playing around with a Sigma on-camera (manual mode) and a Vivitar 285HV with a Wein peanut on a stand. I was able to successfully get the Vivitar to fire as an optical slave to the Sigma. The picture below is only meant to show that I did get things working. You can see that the inside of the guitar is lit by the camera-mounted flash, and the Vivitar is to the right of the camera, firing into an umbrella, creating a shadow on the left side of the guitar. I tried all different configurations, but I believe that was the set-up for this shot. Camera was set to 1/125 f/5.6 85 mm lens. So far so good.

Then last night, I could not replicate this. The Vivitar would not work as an optical slave. It will fire if I press the red button, so I know it will work, but it will not fire as a slave. I actually have two Vivitars now (but just one peanut) and I got the same result. My newest Vivitar has new batteries. Is it possible that my peanut is fried? That is the only thing I can figure out. The flash shoe mounts are metal, if that makes a difference.

Thanks for your help.

I had one Peanut slave fail on me. Wein replaced it rather promptly for me.

Well, the peanut vendors (Adorama, B&H) are closed and I am not a patient person. I guess I will have to contact Wein.

Also try fiddling with the peanut connector.

This connector is a hybrid PC/Vivitar connector and meant to fit onto both the proprietary Vivitar connector and common male PC connector.

In use it seems to fit neither particularly well, but I think I have seem more complains about connecting to a male PC.

Were you just sticking the peanut directly into the port on the Vivitar 285HV? If so, try connecting the short cord that should be packed with your 285HV and then connecting the peanut to that cord.

If you are already using the cord, try just pushing the peanut directly into the sync port on the Vivitar 285HV. You can also try bending the center pin on the male PC connector on the cord ever so slightly that you are pushing into the peanut (if you are using a cord).

There are lots of web posts complaining about the connector on the Wein peanut. It seems to be a real design flaw.

Please post back with your findings.

Enjoy! Lon

Lon

I tried both the direct connection and using the cord, with the same result. I don't get the feeling of a real firm connection when I push it into the socket on the flash, but it seems that way on both Vivitars. So if I have ruled out the flash, ruled out the connection, ruled out the batteries, I guess it has to be the peanut that is bad.

rdsmith3 wrote in post #2984394
Lon

I tried both the direct connection and using the cord, with the same result. I don't get the feeling of a real firm connection when I push it into the socket on the flash, but it seems that way on both Vivitars. So if I have ruled out the flash, ruled out the connection, ruled out the batteries, I guess it has to be the peanut that is bad.

If you are not going to use your optical slave on a Canon EX flash, almost any optical slave will work on a Vivitar 285HV.

The peanut is reported to be one of the few than may actually fire a Canon EX flash.

If you have a cord, just go to ebay and get an inexpensive optical slave with a PC connector.

I personally like the ones that attach to a short cord better as it allows you to place the slave in a location to maximize it's ability to gather light.

Enjoy! Lon

In Florida they boil peanuts.. Yuck!

I've been looking at these for a strobist type setup with Vivitar 283's.