Bad Reviews on the Vivitar 285??

I was reading the reviews on the 285 on BH, and there seems to be a problem with its quality (what would I expect for @$90). I know strobist swear by them...and Mpex is currently sold out of them. So its strange to me that such a demanded flash, has such bad reviews.... Just curious on what the population here thinks about them... I already got 580's, AB800's....all the pretty good stuff... Lookin for something cheap I wouldnt mind getting dirty.

Thanks

I haven't read the reviews personally, but I will say that people sometimes expect a whole lot for a little (price). You see this all the time in the Fred Miranda reviews.

They'll give say the 70-200 2.8 an 8 or a 9 because it 'lacks IS, too heavy, too expensive'. They'll give the 70-200 4 an 8 or a 9 because it 'lacks IS, no tripod collar'. Both lenses are excellent lenses, but people just want to have their cake and eat it too.

I haven't had any problems with my 285. I think it performs wonderfully. In fact, for off camera work, I would much rather use my 285 over my Sigma 500 because it is much simpler to use and it feels a little more solid, in my opinion. The 285 is a good unit. You can't go wrong for 90 dollars.

The main issues I think are that the shoe is cheap plastic and tend to want to break if you use them a lot. You can do metal replacement, the part is cheap, but I read it's a bit difficult to solder due to the kind of metal?

It's also missing 1/8 power which I think is useful. And it's slower to fully recycle than the sunpak 383. These two factors outweigh the benefit of a zooming head for me, so I'll probably trade mine eventually, but by no means is it so bad.

I'd go with the 383.
No zoom head but a better unit overall.
Mine has been stellar.

seed808 wrote in post #5121748
I was reading the reviews on the 285 on BH, and there seems to be a problem with its quality (what would I expect for @$90). I know strobist swear by them...and Mpex is currently sold out of them. So its strange to me that such a demanded flash, has such bad reviews.... Just curious on what the population here thinks about them... I already got 580's, AB800's....all the pretty good stuff... Lookin for something cheap I wouldnt mind getting dirty.

Thanks

The flash forums are full of testimonials about many of the new version (produced within the last year) of the 285HV breaking right out of the box, or within a very short time frame (a few months).

But price alone is not the reason. The Sunpak 383 that is $10.00 less expensive but does not seem to be plagued with such a high failure rate.

Enjoy! Lon

Yeah I was thinking the 383. Some guy on the BH review of the Vivitar 285 said he called Vivitar about his flash problem (if I remember it flashed maybe 2wice, then broke) and he said they stopped making flashes and best they can do now is refund!!!! What!!! Yeah.... Sunpak for the win...

Thanks to everyone who responded!

Dont get too happy, sunpak doesnt list the 383 any longer on their website. Im so happy my 283's just keep chugging along.

I dont know but amazon still has the sunpack 383 for $81.08 still a great deal..

Hey guys...I'm new here.

I was reading this thread and wondered, does the Sunpak 383 have a built-in optical sensor or is that an accessory? How are you guys getting them to fire?

good info
i was debating on either the 383 or the 285HV...
i think im gonna get me a 383 and an umbrella kit...
or two 383s

RyanSweeney wrote in post #5125699
Hey guys...I'm new here.

I was reading this thread and wondered, does the Sunpak 383 have a built-in optical sensor or is that an accessory? How are you guys getting them to fire?

Dont think it does. Comes with the mini-phone to PC chord. Check out Flash Zebra here: www.flashzebra.com/opt​icalslaves/0050.shtml Its only $10

Th e sunpacks do not have a built in optical slave you need to purchase one.

I think there was a bad batch of 285s that got out. For a while they were pulled while quality was checked. There was a thread on the strobist site regarding this. I own one and never had a problem but I will be waiting a bit before getting another one to make sure I get from a better batch.

I just received my Sunpack 383 today from B+H...

I just exchanged two 285s to B&H for the Sunpak 383s. One 285 fried after about 15-20 pops ( a bang with burning electronic smell). Which caused me to do a deeper bit of research finding that a lot of failures of recent manufactured units. Went ahead and swapped them both. Just got the 383s today. On a side note neither of the 285s fired from an optical slave (Wein) both the Sunpaks do. Emailed Wein they felt that the 285s weren't reaching the 5v trigger voltage they needed.