Hi Dave,

thanks for the link.

I think I will go for the low voltage Vivitar 283 then. Thanks for all your help, much appreciated.

Best,
Alfredo

Hi Alfredo

Yes, I think that should be quite safe. I’d recommend testing the flash when you get it to make sure the voltage really is that low. A good guide to checking the voltage is here: Measuring the Voltage on a Vivitar 285 Flash (it’s the same process for all flashes).

The radio triggers I was previously using (shown in my Vis UV IR Flower Photography Guide) are labelled as RD-616 on the receivers and RF-616 on the transmitter. They use a PC sync connection, so you need a hotshoe – PC sync adapter for the flash.

The triggers I’m using now are model PT-04 CN II. These have a hotshoe connection, which I find much more convenient and easy to use than PC sync. They can be a bit flaky with rechargeable batteries but work fine with alkalines.

You do need to be careful when looking at radio triggers for the high voltage Vivitar 283 models as not all triggers will work with them. For the lower voltage models I suspect almost any radio trigger should work okay.

Regards

Dave

Hi Dave,

thanks for the reply.

I am aware of better light sources convertible to full-spectrum, however I also need something light, portable, easy to convert to full-spectrum and cheap.

I found on Ebay some Vivitar 283 with a trigger voltage of 7-8 or 9 volts. As I am a total novice user of Fuji cameras I don’t know which voltage they support. On the manual is stated “nothing above 250V” as for Nikon, however the last thing I want to do is to fry the camera electronics. But I suppose that everything belove or around 11 Volts should be safe for any DSLR, is that right?

Alternatively could you please suggest me which radiotrigger works for the combination IS-Pro/Vivitar 283?

Cheers,
Alfredo

Hi Alfredo

Most Vivitar 283 flashes are very high voltage and you definitely don’t want to connect them to your camera as the high voltage would fry your camera’s electronics. Instead use a radio triggering system, a reciever on the flash and transmitter on the camera hotshoe.

I’m not really aware of a better UV light source, but I wouldn’t say the Vivitar 283 is a ‘good’ source of UV light, just it is the best (in terms of the trade-offs between light output, flash duration, cost, and portability) we have available. I think there are a couple of portable 400W/s flashes that can output UV, and obviously they can give a stronger output than the Vivitar 283. But they cost quite a bit more.

I do close-up photos with two Vivitar 283 firing at full power – I hold the flashes as close to the flower as possible without getting the flashes in the frame, and often have to use an ISO around 400.

I have a guide showing what I use for my flower photos here: Vis UV IR Flower Photography Guide. (Actually that’s out of date as some of the gear I use has changed, but it’s not much different).

Kind regards

Dave

I have a question, how do you connect the Vivitar 283 flash to the Fuji IS-Pro? Can it be attached to the camera hotshoe? I need a good source of UV light that also needs to be portable so a hotshoe flash for my IS-Pro would be the best solution. Is this flash a good UV source after modification? Ideally I would need a good short range UV source as I will be mostly doing close-up photos. Thanks.

Alfredo

Thanks for the comment Andrea. I’ve been hoping to experiment with white balance for some time, but haven’t got round to it yet. The main problem is ACR can’t set a true white balance in UV for my files (both temperature and tint sliders are maxed to the left). So I’ll need to work on creating a custom DNG profile to see what images with a proper white balance look like.

I’ll take a look at that website sometime. (Just had a quick look now, and looks like lots of useful information and great images). I’m not sure what the issue with WordPress not accepting the link was, but I’ve added the link to your name now.

Dave

Thanks Pierre, I’m glad you found it useful. I’ve since bought a 75mm EL Nikkor, but haven’t tested it yet – need some more flowers. I also bought a Wray 3.25in f/4.5 Supar enlarging lens, which I have tested for UV, and sadly it exhibited focus shift like my other lenses.