Trigger voltage converter for old flash units?

[marxz]

I've recently had a couple of Vivitar 285's dropped in to my lap- old equipment from work (who officially shut down their photography department a couple of years ago - but actually just merged the staff in to the media department and are slowly throwing out all old pre digital era gear - and already got my self some Lowel Tote Lite constant lighting/stands/brollies etc).

Unlike the new Vivitar 285's (confusingly called "285 HV") the plain old 285's use a 200v high voltage compared to the 6V's on the new 285 HV's (see what I mean about confusing - the low volt ones are called "HV"'s)

I've no intention of using them directly on my Canon EOS DSLR's but want to use them on wireless trigger units like the generic "ebay remotes" (one brand name they are sold under is the "cactus V2" again oddly named, as here in our local slang "cactus" means "dead" or "broken") or, eventually, pocket wizards.

Does anybody have any experience using high voltage strobes with the "ebay remotes" and/or Pocket Wizards and if so can they handle the 200V trigger voltage. If not is there a commercially available converter such as the optical converter that Tandy (Radio Shack) used to sell some years ago?

[prinothcat]

Check out Wien. I think they make something that will work. They have some finicky products, and can at times be hard to reach by email, but the unit may suit your needs.

[marxz]

Check out Wien. I think they make something that will work. They have some finicky products, and can at times be hard to reach by email, but the unit may suit your needs.

Oh my for a photography accessory company they sure do have some of the worst pictures (IQ wise) ever... don't think I've seen such blocky aliased images since the days of Mosaic 1 beta browser (late 80's)....

me thinks they still have them selves a '94 Apple Quicktake 100 camera for taking stock photos.

[castledude]

Pocket wizards are rated to 200V. (for the Plus II) and 250V for the Multimax. The ebay cheap ones are not rated for much I seem to remember 24 or less.

You can build a safe sync for yourself
http://www.mitraphoto.com/SafeSync.jsp

[marxz]

I think for safety sake I'll probably stick to getting a pair of pocket wizards - the Plus II's are not cheap compared to the "ebay" units but not break the bank expensive. Also I'm thinking about doing some stuff that needs remote camera triggering so given the Pocketwizards will handle that too then that off sets the price against having to get an additional wireless camera remote (the "ebay" wireless flash units that can only trigger flashes and not the camera).