Comments on: Vivitar VP-1 Varipower Adapter Review

By: How to make vegetables look yummy on an overcast day! « mrmarcmorel

How to make vegetables look yummy on an overcast day! « mrmarcmorel — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 08:47:14 +0000

[...] it a nice 3D highlight. The beauty of the ancient Vivitar 283 flash is that you can put a little infinitely variable power control on the front – sort of like a lighting dimmer, and control the power output. So, generally [...]

By: jphphotography

jphphotography — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 05:13:57 +0000

Here’s a link on how to essentially make a VP-1, its not exactly the same but it does give you the pinout and what resistance values correspond to how many fstops.

http://www.krebsmicro.com/VIV283/index.html

My dad offered me his old 283 way back but I declined due to the lack of manual control and the high trigger voltage. Now that I know about this and have since acquired wireless triggers I’m going to take a stab at it. I think a 250K log pot should do the trick!

By: Photonomikon

Photonomikon — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 23:43:23 +0000

I got mine at B&H but unfortunately it seems that they no longer carry it. Which makes mine more valuable
Amazon doesn’t have them either.

By: Lawrence Pe

Lawrence Pe — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:24:05 +0000

I have a 283 myself, i use it with my cactus v2 radio triggers. But unfortunately i cant seem to find VP-1′s anymore. Can anybody point me to where i can get a couple? I’ll get another 283 if only i had someway of controlling the output off camera.

By: Ignatz Horowitz

Ignatz Horowitz — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:12:46 +0000

I was lucky enough to come across a 283 (Korean), and sprung for the VP-1 (all for my Nikon D1x). Glad to see there’s still tons of info out there on these.

By: Roger

Roger — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:33:22 +0000

The Korea Vivitar 283 I own measured at about 10V so it’s safe for most modern cameras.

By: Photonomikon

Photonomikon — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 00:11:54 +0000

Thanks!
The Vivitar 283 and 285 still are powerful workhorses for many photographers because they are considered to be very robust and reliable.

As far as I know, the Vivitar 285HV can be safely used in any modern camera’s hotshoe because its triggering voltage is low enough for this. However, you need to be really cautious with non-HV models (i.e. older flashes) because they can have voltages upward of 200V and they can badly damage the camera’s electronics.

As for the 283, I can’t say for certain because it has never interested me. I also have a modern Sigma 500DG Super flash that is designed for my Canon so I never needed to mount the Vivitar directly to my camera.

I actually got the Vivitars so I could use them with the wireless remote triggers and they work very well in this mode. I would suggest you do the same. They are cheap on eBay.

Also, something else I read (but don’t take my word for it, research it first!): it seems that 283′s made in China are safe to be used on a digital camera, while those made in Japan aren’t. Again, please research this before trying anything

By: tali

tali — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 20:55:58 +0000

This is awesome info, as I just dug up my old 283 last weekend! Just curious if you would know if this flash can be used in the hotshoe of a nikon? specifically the d40x? i have no interest in testing it out and frying my camera, but it would be nice to use this flash and save some money since it never failed me in the past…

thanks!