Vivitar DF-383 Flash

[jubbin2001]

Anyone familiar with this flash? I am thinking about getting one, since I can't really do a SB-600 right now (nor in the forseeable future.) Was hoping someone might have had the chance to try them out. Thanks!

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[KmH]

Are you wanting to do on camera (bounce) or off camera flash (OCF).

For on camera flash visit www.planetneil.com and for OCF visit www.strobist.com.

I do OCF utilizing radio triggers and Vivitar 285HV's in addition to my Nikon speedlights.

[jubbin2001]

Well I ordered a flash today. Once on the phone with the company they said that I should go with a Nissin i622 instead. Apparently its performance is very close to the SB-600, and it was only $10 more than the Vivitar. I took their advice, and it should be here Friday. We'll see what happens.

[PatrickCheung]

the nissin is great when its on the camera... and when you're set at/below your camera's sync speed.

off camera, it's quite a hassle to trigger without radio triggers... sometimes it triggers perfectly... sometimes it doesnt... it works on a line of sight system... where the flash's light sensor HAS to "see" the master flash. sometimes it works through a light modifier... sometimes it doesn't. :] dont get me wrong though, most of the time... it works fine indoors.

it's... practically useless outdoors in my opinion. the slave can't pick up the light from your master flash... you can't manually zoom the flash... there's no high speed sync so you can't get any flash exposure at shutter speeds past the sync speed. i was at the beach with a few of my friends and i took this flash with me instead of the sb-600 as a fill flash... at any shutter speed higher than the sync speed.. i could not notice the fill flash at all. maybe the ambient light was too strong... but i decided not to investigate further since i already have a fully functioning sb-600.

basically... with the nissin, keep it on camera, keep it indoors.

it lacks high speed sync, which i find very usefull... and its slave functions are quite horrible, at least from my experience. and, it doesnt fire with Cactus triggers... only a few ebay triggers (yong nuo's ctr-301p works... i used them) if you're looking into that.

i ended up selling mine for money to spend towards my sb-900 (which i'm very happy with :])

if you want a cheap flash to use, try looking into the nissin di422. it gives you the option of on-camera ttl, off camera slave that picks up only nikon's master flash, or off camera slave that picks up ANY flash (even cellphone flashes). it still lacks high speed sync, but i found it more useful than the di622. it's also smaller and lighter... a neat tiny package :]