P3D Those hard-working 285 Vivitars....

["Johnson, Stuart" <SLJ4@xxxxxxx>]

        In regards to the comments on the 285 Vivitar Flash units, 
they are dependable, powerful, flexible, and inexpensive.  They have
been around for about 20 years or so, and I've bought them for as
cheap as $5 at flea-markets.  Last year, while looking for a powerful
system to use with my 25 ASA & F16 settings, I found out that even
the most powerful flash units (and expensive) did not provide the
performance I assumed they would come with.  As I pondered this,
it occurred to me that maybe all I had to do was "bank" a number 
of the Vivitars together (one on the hot-shoe) and the rest equipped
with peanut-slaves to produce the same or BETTER punch that the
$500 to $1,000 "powerful" units offered for a lot LESS!  So, at Pardees
Camera's in Sacramento we set them up and recorded the output with
a new electronic light sensitivity meter.  When we put three of the $80
vivitar 285 units together, they EQUALLED or excelled the $500-$1,000
units!  Of course, since the Vivitars were "slaved", they could be better
placed for better light saturation as well (But for the test we kept the
units together).  There are a zillion possibilities one could explore with
the flexibility in using banked vivitars.  One of the guys there said he
had recently seen a Cindy Crawford "shoot" were the photographer
had several banks of 10+ Vivitars slaved together at an outdoor location
to provide the flash needed.   So, if it's good enough for Hollywood, my
guess is that it will probably provide great results for the 3D world as
well.   When we hooked FOUR of them up, no other flash could match 
the output over a distance of 30 feet with 25 ASA speed film & the F16
aperture setting. All of these can be mounted on a 2 foot "fixed" bar
(two at each end) with the cameras mounted in the center.  Simply
turn on as many of the flashes as needed. Or, split them up and put
them in remote locations using the peanut slaves.  The battery packs
recharge these units very quickly AND they even have AC capability.

                                        -Stuart Johnson


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End of PHOTO-3D Digest 2742
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