Vivitar 285HV Auto Professional Flash: Customer Reviews & Product Details

I just ordered a second one.

This is the budget flash made famous by David Hobby's Strobist articles. Like so many others I have been inspired to add off-camera flash to my skill set. I've been using this flash for four months without problems. (I'm a pro-sumer photographer that shoots about ten paid sessions a year and countless for-fun sessions. Mostly portraits.)

I gave it a lot of stars because this flash is plenty powerful and has four manual power settings. Most importantly it doesn't cost much compared to other flashes. An additional benefit to using this flash is that due to its recent popularity, if you have questions about specific accessories, cables, or modifications, it's easy to get information from the enormous online Strobist community.

It misses a star because it's relatively big and the plastic foot makes me nervous. Also, the Vivitar PC sync connection is annoying. (I think they call it PC-1?)You'll need an extra conversion cord in many cases to connect to your camera or radio trigger. (To be clear, the flash comes with a Vivitar male to PC Female cord. You usually won't need to BUY an extra cord, you will just need to USE an extra cord.)

The 285hv is a favorite among budget-conscious photographers for a reason. For the price, there's simply no other flash on the market that matches it in raw power. It obviously doesn't work with any sort of TTL metering, but manual operation is dead simple and it even provides a useful guide dial on the side if you're so inclined to shoot in that manner.

Personally, I adore this flash. I use it on my Panasonic GH1, and it has never left me wanting for more.

I purchased this flash unit to use as an external flash with my Lumix FZ29 digital camera. It works fine and actually has more features than I need. I selected this flash because it has a trigger voltage which will not "harm" my camera. It has many features such as the bounce feature and it is well made. I give it five stars. I purchased this unit from Amazon and delivery was prompt and the unit was as described on the spec sheet.

I bought two of these flashes about a year ago. The first stopped working after about 5 months. Just wouldn't fire the flash. I probably used it less that 300 times. The second one stopped working about 12 months after I bought it. It let out a smell like burnt electronics and won't fire. Waste of money.

The service of this seller was outstanding, shipped correct product on time. However, I don't quite understand why the seller has to charge close to $30 for shipping when the item came by US Postal Priority Mail for $4.80. I almost didn't purchase when I saw how high the shipping charge was going to be but bought anyway due to the low item costs.