Canon Flash -OR- Vivitar's w/Extras?

I'm in the market to get some kind of flash lighting going on. I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to this, however.

I was looking at the 580EX II and found one for a decent price through a member on here. Though before I make the plunge and purchase that, I figured for around the same price as a new Canon flash, I could have two trusty ol' Vivitars and wireless capabilities.

So what I was thinking was:
EL-Skyport's w/ extra receiver
Vivitar 285HV's x2
Misc. hardware (that I'm not aware of yet. hint, hint.)

...and I'm ready to rock and roll more or less. I've read that the Vivitar's will fire just fine, when mounted into the shoe on a Canon (I'm using a Mark III). Also, aside from the proper cord for sale, there is a simple soldering trick to get the Vivitars to fire properly with the Skyport system.

Opinions and comments are welcome and helpful.

It really depends if you ever want automatic ETTL flash, and comes down to budget, Your call really.

The Cactus triggers are so cheap you can try those first, and if you like them you can get more Vivitars ( you cant have to many =) )

haleiwa-brando wrote in post #5944267
I'm in the market to get some kind of flash lighting going on. I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to this, however.

I was looking at the 580EX II and found one for a decent price through a member on here. Though before I make the plunge and purchase that, I figured for around the same price as a new Canon flash, I could have two trusty ol' Vivitars and wireless capabilities.

So what I was thinking was:
EL-Skyport's w/ extra receiver
Vivitar 285HV's x2
Misc. hardware (that I'm not aware of yet. hint, hint.)

...and I'm ready to rock and roll more or less. I've read that the Vivitar's will fire just fine, when mounted into the shoe on a Canon (I'm using a Mark III). Also, aside from the proper cord for sale, there is a simple soldering trick to get the Vivitars to fire properly with the Skyport system.

Opinions and comments are welcome and helpful.

The Misc. hardware you will want is a pair of sensor extension cables so that you can use big modifiers on the flashes and retain use of the thyristor. The head only moves up and down... no swivel. I have the extension for both of my my 283's and they're so handy. I can fire my flashes into big umbrellas and I mount the thyristor sensor end to the light stand facing the area I'm lighting and it works great. I also have the photoflex softbox that I use as well and it's pretty big (relatively speaking). Just remember that you need to use a hotshoe to sync adapter and connect that to the camera end of the extension, and then your radio receiver to that and not the hotshoe of the flash itself. When using the extension cable, it deactivates the flash shoe. Using this, you should not need to do any modifying of the flash... no soldering. My setup works just fine.

I highly recommend going with the Vivitars if you're on a budget and you plan on only using the flashes mostly in a studio setting or where you otherwise have time to meter the flash. E-TTL is cool and all but pretty much useless in this context.

forkball wrote in post #6025345
The Misc. hardware you will want is a pair of sensor extension cables so that you can use big modifiers on the flashes and retain use of the thyristor. The head only moves up and down... no swivel. I have the extension for both of my my 283's and they're so handy. I can fire my flashes into big umbrellas and I mount the thyristor sensor end to the light stand facing the area I'm lighting and it works great. I also have the photoflex softbox that I use as well and it's pretty big (relatively speaking). Just remember that you need to use a hotshoe to sync adapter and connect that to the camera end of the extension, and then your radio receiver to that and not the hotshoe of the flash itself. When using the extension cable, it deactivates the flash shoe. Using this, you should not need to do any modifying of the flash... no soldering. My setup works just fine.

I dunno about all that, I just use my 285's on manual power and use my hand-held meter to read and adjust light ratios then there's no need for the thyristor to be moved.

haleiwa-brando wrote in post #5944267
So what I was thinking was:
EL-Skyport's w/ extra receiver
Vivitar 285HV's x2
Misc. hardware (that I'm not aware of yet. hint, hint.)

...and I'm ready to rock and roll more or less. I've read that the Vivitar's will fire just fine, when mounted into the shoe on a Canon (I'm using a Mark III). Also, aside from the proper cord for sale, there is a simple soldering trick to get the Vivitars to fire properly with the Skyport system.

Opinions and comments are welcome and helpful.

I'm surprised that you'd want to use 285's on a Mark III, using them as slaves is fine but I'd get a 580 to put on it. The 285's are large and clunky w/ non swivel heads. I also find eTTL handy sometimes.

Misc hardware all depends on where you plan to put on your production.

Here's my 3.5 mod for the 285's. I plan on splitting the cable and using one PW for multi strobes.

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There are older Vivitars which are the old trusty flash units that so many love, then there are the more recent units , but appear to be less reliable Chinese 'knock offs' with the which officially carry the same brand and model name!

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