Elinchrom Skyport w. Vivitar 283?

<p>Hello all,<br>

I am new to serious flash photography and in the process of putting together an economical home studio outfit. I have already acquired 2 used Elinchrom "D-Lite 4 it" heads (400ws ea.) w. a Skyport Transmitter (and the receivers built into the heads).<br>

My question: if I need further lights in a setup (e.g. background), I thought of using my old & trusty Vivitar 283 strobes instead of buying further Elichrom heads. If I want to release these Vivitars synchronously with the main Elinchom lights, can I use separate Skyport receivers with them to do so?<br>

By the way, I already have cheap Chinese radio releases which work with the Vivitars but I don't know, how to coordinate them with the Skyport. It's probably not workable.<br>

Any advice appreciated.<br>

Andy</p>

<p>Just buy an inexpensive optical slave for each of your Visitor 283s, and they'll trigger from your RX4s' visible flash output (I also have Elinchrom strobes, but have a pile of old 283s, too--love those things!).</p>

<p>These are the optical slaves I have: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/62712-REG/Wein_940_030_HS_Hot_Shoe_Slave.html<br /> I also have some Dot Line slaves which work just fine: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/774432-REG/Dot_Line_DL_0129_Slave_Flash_Unit_with.html</p>

<p>I use the same Wein slaves Ralph linked to, also on a Vivitar 283, and have never been let down. I use them with 2 Nikon SB800s all triggered from the D800's onboard pop-up flash.</p>

<p>Thanks guys, optical slave triggers are the solution which, by the way, I already have. I was thinking too complicated and you brought me down to earth. Thanks!<br>

Andy</p>

<p>Just as a side note: in a studio environment even the very cheapest Chinese optical slaves sold on ebay seem to work more than fine.<br>

If you need to combine 2 breeds of radio triggers, why not put a optical slave trigger under the secondary radio transmitter? - Or try to rig both on one camera by using a fllash bracket holding a PC port to hotshoe adapter for the 2nd radio transmitter.. - I wouldn't adapt a lonely hotshoe to a PC multi connector to 2 triggers placed on the same camera, I just had too much bad experience with excessive PC wirings' unreliability.</p>

<p>I would go with the optical slaves in this case. I have the thesehttp://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/63118-REG/Wein_W940001_PN_Peanut_Slave_100.html<br>

They plug right into the side of either a 283 or 285<br>

Just a note though you are having trouble getting them to go off try changing the batteries in the flash. they seem to be sensitive to less then fresh batteries.</p>

<p>We recently bought 4 of the Wein peanut slaves for Vivitar 285s at the college where I teach, and every single one of them didn't work out of the package. I have successfully used a lot of Wein slaves in the past, but this must have been a bad batch.</p>

<p>Speaking of optical slaves for Vivitar flashes, I have been using Sonia brand units I bought from FlashZebra.com several years ago. They are made specifically for Vivitar flashes including the 283 and 285. They plug into the sync cable port on the side of the flash instead of the hot shoe. They are small and relatively inexpensive at about $12 apiece and seem pretty rugged. I have been using them off and on for several years in combination with radio triggered flashes or as a supplement to the small on-camera flash on my Fuji X-20 (set to manual flash) and have had no problems with them.</p>