Vivitar 285 too strong?

I have a 580exII a Vivitar 285 and a Nikon sb20 which I trigger with cybercyncs off camera. It seems like even at 1/16 power which is the lowest the Vivitar goes the light is still too harsh at times shooting through umbrellas or into a siver umbrella. The recycle times stink as well.

Am I missing something here? Everyone hypes these up and I don't like mine. Maybe someone can tell me that I need to change some setting either in camera or on the flash. I never seem to have that problem with my other 2 flashes. Even the crappy old Nikon SB20 seems to work better.

At 1/16 power, you should be able to fire that Vivitar 285 at will. Sounds like it is really set to MANUAL or FULL power and not 1/16 like you think.

I must be doing something wrong...

MD Steelerfan wrote in post #6347494
I must be doing something wrong...

I have 2 roughly 20-year-old Vivitar 283's with similar problems. The power setting module developed oxidation which causes the flash to shoot at full power. What I ended up doing is to disassemble the dial (single phillips screw) and spray the mechanical contacts with electronic cleaner (i.e., CRC Quick-Dry Electronic Cleaner) and to rotate the dial repeatedly (about 50 X's) from full to 1/16 power.

I also sprayed the mating contacts on the flash body and module and inserted / removed the module from the flash repeatedly (also about 50 X's) to clean the pins / contacts off.

I haven't had a problem since doing this (about 6 months ago).

try getting some high-power rechargables (at least 2400mah) for better recycle times. At 1/16, recycle on my hv285 is less than 1 second with a fully charged set of batts. (IIRC)

Thanks for the help guys. This is a brand new unit. If I still have the box I'll exchange it.

I am convinced it is firing full no matter what I set it on. I am using sanyo enloops and get great performance with my other flashes.

If you are actually not able to adjust your flash power due to a technical issue, just adjust your aperture 4 stops, you will get the same exposure as stopping down your flash power to 1/16..... Unless you have a specific target aperture for the shot.

Might seem obvious, but to adjust power, you are turning the thyristor on the front of the unit, and not the dial on the side, right?

Dave,

You'll have to excuse me for a minute while I off myself. That is exactly what I was doing wrong...I can't believe how stupid I am. I had turned the front dial and seen just colored boxes and then "M". If you keep turning that dial then the other choices come up. I guess based on my other flash units I thought you put it in manual mode then used the dial on the side to adjust it.

Since Vivitar decided to do it differently I was thrown off. That dial on the side does absolutely nothing! Thanks for pointing out the obvious, which was in fact my problem. If you see me on the forum later you will know that I was unsuccessful in my attempt to end my miserable existence

Thanks again,
Brian

Glad to help. I'm sure you weren't the first or will be the last to have this issue.

MD Steelerfan wrote in post #6357084
Dave,

You'll have to excuse me for a minute while I off myself. That is exactly what I was doing wrong...I can't believe how stupid I am. I had turned the front dial and seen just colored boxes and then "M". If you keep turning that dial then the other choices come up. I guess based on my other flash units I thought you put it in manual mode then used the dial on the side to adjust it.

Since Vivitar decided to do it differently I was thrown off. That dial on the side does absolutely nothing! Thanks for pointing out the obvious, which was in fact my problem. If you see me on the forum later you will know that I was unsuccessful in my attempt to end my miserable existence

Thanks again,
Brian

Brian,

If it makes you feel better, I too had the same issue when I first used this flash.

I think this should be a sticky.

Thanks for at least making me feel like I am not a complete idiot. For the record...the instruction manual for that flash stinks. It is very poorly written and has very fewvisual references to the hardware.