# Flash Shoot Off.



## jwbryson1 (Dec 6, 2011)

Shooting with a Nikon D90.  Which is the better choice for off-brand flash and why?  Cost is about the same.

Yongnuo YN-560

Vivitar 285HV


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## Derrel (Dec 6, 2011)

Heads, Yongnuo.

Tails: Vivtar.

I have three 285's each from the mid-1980's. Still working. Not sure if the Chinese-made Yongnuos will hold up for as many years or not...they have only been on the market for a short period of time...specification-wise the Yongy's seem to have a lot of good features. I believe the 560 has a built-in slave trigger: that alone is worth $25 in monetary terms, and even MORE in practical terms and expanded capabilities right outta' the box...do you have a web page that shows complete specs for the Yongy???


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## jwbryson1 (Dec 6, 2011)

Derrel said:


> Heads, Yongnuo.
> 
> Tails: Vivtar.
> 
> I have three 285's each from the mid-1980's. Still working. Not sure if the Chinese-made Yongnuos will hold up for as many years or not...they have only been on the market for a short period of time...specification-wise the Yongy's seem to have a lot of good features. I believe the 560 has a built-in slave trigger: that alone is worth $25 in monetary terms, and even MORE in practical terms and expanded capabilities right outta' the box...do you have a web page that shows complete specs for the Yongy???



I don't, but I think you make a good point in terms of features.  That's the way I was leaning, but the damn Vivitar's keep popping up and then I get confused.  I do like the built in slave and the cost on the Yongy.  I don't like that I have to manually adjust the flash output on the flash itself versus making in camera adjustments to the flash output which is possible with the Nikon speedlights.  But they are damn expensive.


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## Robin Usagani (Dec 6, 2011)

If this is your first flash, get one that can do TTL auto mode.  If this isnt your first one and you want to do OCF, it doesnt matter unless you have fancy trigger that can do TTL and FP mode.


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## jwbryson1 (Dec 6, 2011)

Schwettylens said:


> If this is your first flash, get one that can do TTL auto mode.  If this isnt your first one and you want to do OCF, it doesnt matter unless you have fancy trigger that can do TTL and FP mode.



Not my first flash.  I own an SB-700 and have been working on putting together a home studio for the past few months.  I was considering getting a used SB-600 or SB-800 from Adorama but for the price of admission, even on used equipment, I think it makes sense to go with an off brand flash to learn OCF.  

I plan on buying a flash trigger at the same time.


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## Derrel (Dec 6, 2011)

I located the official Yongnuo 560 manual at   http://www.yongnuoebay.com/sm/yn5601.pdf

and one for the 285HV at  http://ec1.images-amazon.com/media/i3d/01/A/man-migrate/MANUAL000011531.pdf

The Yongy is newer and more high-tech looking, and has finer control settings in terms of power output and flash head zoom. The thing that would annoy me is the auto-shutoff on the Yongy....ewww...I would not want that, ever!!! It says the delay can be lengthened, but I would want power-saving to be disabled totally. Power-saving auto shutoff is what I refer to as the "advanced picture-misser" feature...


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## jwbryson1 (Dec 6, 2011)

Derrel said:


> I located the official Yongnuo 560 manual at   http://www.yongnuoebay.com/sm/yn5601.pdf
> 
> and one for the 285HV at  http://ec1.images-amazon.com/media/i3d/01/A/man-migrate/MANUAL000011531.pdf
> 
> The Yongy is newer and more high-tech looking, and has finer control settings in terms of power output and flash head zoom. The thing that would annoy me is the auto-shutoff on the Yongy....ewww...I would not want that, ever!!! It says the delay can be lengthened, but I would want power-saving to be disabled totally. Power-saving auto shutoff is what I refer to as the "advanced picture-misser" feature...



That's great, thanks Derrell. The Yongy doesn't open for me, but I'll try again at home.


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## fjrabon (Dec 6, 2011)

Another to consider is the Metz.  Just got the Mecablitz 50 AF-1, it's pretty awesome.  To me it certainly holds its own with the SB800


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## jwbryson1 (Dec 6, 2011)

fjrabon said:


> Another to consider is the Metz.  Just got the Mecablitz 50 AF-1, it's pretty awesome.  To me it certainly holds its own with the SB800



Agreed, but for the price of the Metz, I could have 3 Vivitars or Yongnuos.


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## fjrabon (Dec 6, 2011)

jwbryson1 said:


> fjrabon said:
> 
> 
> > Another to consider is the Metz.  Just got the Mecablitz 50 AF-1, it's pretty awesome.  To me it certainly holds its own with the SB800
> ...



woah, I guess I somehow stumbled upon a 1 day deal I wasn't aware of or something.  I got mine off Amazon for $140 from Adorama.  Now they're $230.


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## jwbryson1 (Dec 6, 2011)

fjrabon said:


> jwbryson1 said:
> 
> 
> > fjrabon said:
> ...



I think there was a flash, uh, Flash sale on Amazon on Monday.  That's a great price!


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## 2WheelPhoto (Dec 6, 2011)

I have 2 of the vivitars and they're OK but the ebay studio strobe I bought blows them away and has a modelling light to boot.


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## jwbryson1 (Dec 6, 2011)

2WheelPhoto said:


> the ebay studio strobe I bought blows them away and has a modelling light to boot.



I'll bite---what's that?


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## Derrel (Dec 6, 2011)

I located the official Yongnuo 560 manual at   http://www.yongnuoebay.com/sm/yn5601.pdf

and one for the 285HV at  http://ec1.images-amazon.com/media/i3d/01/A/man-migrate/MANUAL000011531.pdf

The Yongy is newer and more high-tech looking, and has finer control settings in terms of power output and flash head zoom. The thing that would annoy me is the auto-shutoff on the Yongy....ewww...I would not want that, ever!!! It says the delay can be lengthened, but I would want power-saving to be disabled totally. Power-saving auto shutoff is what I refer to as the "advanced picture-misser" feature...


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## 2WheelPhoto (Dec 6, 2011)

jwbryson1 said:


> 2WheelPhoto said:
> 
> 
> > the ebay studio strobe I bought blows them away and has a modelling light to boot.
> ...



I bought this on for same price as my two vivitars and its certainly done me better regarding lighting, and portable battery power makes it sweet =)


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## Village Idiot (Dec 8, 2011)

Vivitar has had some mare QC issues over the past few years with about 50% of the strobes in one of their batches being defunt.

If you want something with a company that stands behind their product, check out the LumoPro LP160. It'll be a little more, but it has even more features and Midwest Photo Exchange (MPEX.com) is a good company to deal with. The strobe was actually designed with the whole Strobist thing in mind. Moishe from MPEX even went so far as to take every single Vivtar 285HV sold out of the box and test them prior to shipping them out when the whole botched quality thing was found out to be an issue. That's dedication to customer service.


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## cgipson1 (Dec 8, 2011)

I have two of the Yongnuo YN-560's I use for background lighting, etc... and they do a good job. As Derrel mentioned, they do have built-in slaves.. and are Preflash compatible (they ignore the pre-flash on one setting) and also have a full manual slave setting. Easy to set power and zoom on them.


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## kassad (Dec 8, 2011)

Derrel said:
			
		

> I located the official Yongnuo 560 manual at   http://www.yongnuoebay.com/sm/yn5601.pdf
> 
> and one for the 285HV at  http://ec1.images-amazon.com/media/i3d/01/A/man-migrate/MANUAL000011531.pdf
> 
> The Yongy is newer and more high-tech looking, and has finer control settings in terms of power output and flash head zoom. The thing that would annoy me is the auto-shutoff on the Yongy....ewww...I would not want that, ever!!! It says the delay can be lengthened, but I would want power-saving to be disabled totally. Power-saving auto shutoff is what I refer to as the "advanced picture-misser" feature...



The power saving mode can be turned off on the yn-560.   It also has a sync port and can take an external battery pack.   There is a new model called the yn-560 Mark II.    As far as I have been able to tell it just adds a    LCD screen.


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