VIVITAR DF200 Digital Flash 200

Rating:
Summary: This flash is useless to me...
Review: Contrary to the common statement that this flash will work with any camera, it's not true. I have the Canon Digital Rebel. The Rebel uses "flash assist" when focusing in dark settings, where it strobes the flash to light the subject to aid in exposure metering. This cannot be turned off.

Unfortunately, when the camera flash strobes to help focus, it triggers the DF200 slave flash, and when the shutter snaps a half-second later, the Vivitar DF200 is not recharged and cannot flash. The picture is under-exposed, because the DF200 lit the subject beyond what the Rebel was expecting during it's focusing phase, and then the DF200 doesn't light the subject at all during the actual image acquisition.

I'm returning the flash. It looks like a nice package for the money, but if it doesn't work, it's useless.

Rating:
Summary: An ideal companion for the lovely Lumix 12x zooms
Review: Digital cameras seem to be all-or-nothing in the flash department. Either they accept full-featured dedicated flash units, or you're stuck with the built-in flash.

I recently bought the lovely Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20 with the outstanding 12X f/2.8 Leica zoom lens. It's a truly wonderful camera, but it's saddled with a wimpy pop-up flash. It has a non-dedicated flash shoe, but you can't use an auxiliary flash along with the pop-up flash. This is a pity, since the pop-up flash has as much built-in intelligence as most serious dedicated flashes - it's just not very powerful.

The DF200 is an almost perfect match for the FZ20! Although it mounts using a shoe, it's really a slave flash. You attach the included flash bracket to the camera base and slip the DF200 into the shoe. You then either tell it, or let it learn by itself whether your camera uses preflash and, if so, how many pulses. Having done this, you're ready to go. As a slave, it obediently flashes for exactly the same length of time as the pop-up flash, only with significantly more power. This not only buys you greater flash range, but also increases the charge life of the camera's battery. As with most competent flashes, it adjusts in two axes, enabling easy bounce flash.

Is it perfect? Of course not! It's mildly annoying, after owning a 35 mm system with a dedicated zoom flash, to have to adjust the flash angle manually. I also have to agree, it fairly screams "cheap plastic!" Still, it works as advertised at a very attractive price point (certainly a better deal than Panasonic's wimpy and overpriced companion flash!) Ignoring cosmetics, it's a uniquely useful and ingenious solution to a problem facing many digital camera owners. My rating is 5 stars minus one for the build quality.

Rating:
Summary: features not enough to offset poor build quality/design
Review: I don't know what got into Vivitar, but somehow they decided to put a red decorative panel on the front of this flash. They probably thought this would convince some buyers they were acquiring an Nikon Speedlight. The panel performs no obvious function, and is so flimsy my unit arrived with the panel already broken off. Turns out this panel also covers the innards of the flash unit, because I saw wires and transistors and stuff. Fortunately, I knew well enough not to poke into the innards of a flash unit, I could have been electroshocked. I had to glue back the panel.

When compared to my Vivitar 285HV, the DF200 isn't even close. The 285HV has only one weakness, the foot, but mine's still intact, and the rest of the flash has that tough, professional look. In contrast, the DF200 is plasticky, and is silver painted, too. The battery door is flimsy, as is the rest of the flash. Why Vivitar? Ironically, the DF200 costs as much as my 285HV when I acquired it some years ago.

To be honest, the learning mode seems able to profile my Coolpix, and the flash works within its limitations, but the poor build quality just disappoints.

Rating:
Summary: Extremely poor quality
Review: I purchased this flash in November. It worked fine for the first two weeks. Then it began to fire randomly, even without a triggering flash. Finally by January the slave circuitry failed and it no longer detects the flash from any of three cameras that I have used it with.

When it worked, it appeared to a pretty good flash but it did not last more than a couple of months of very light use (never even left the home).

Rating:
Summary: Full Featured, Inexpensive, Works with White-blnce Preflash
Review: This flash has a digital slave circuitry. That means the built-in flash on your camera triggers the big flash to provide more (much more) power.

Problem is that many digicam models use a rapid preflash 200 milliseconds before the main flash fires to set white balance. This causes most digital slave circuits' flashes to fire prematurely, rendering them useless. Worse, in fact, as I discovered, they often cause the pic to come out darker than using the built-in flash alone because they fool the sensor into thinking that the scene is lighter and that increases the aperture setting and automatically lowers the ISO setting

After several trips to the camera store buying and returning slave flashes that didn't work with my camera, I went online to by this in one last attempt to find a decent flash that works with my digicam. I have one of those (wonderful) Panasonics that has a 12X optical zoom with image stabilization.

This one works - beautifully. Now I can zoom out 12X in low or no light, way, way, across the room and get a properly exposed, sharp as a tack picture - handheld (not tripod) yet. The optical zoom, image stabilization, and digital slave flash works great together. It adds a whole new dimension to my camera.

This flash has a detection feature that "learns" what type of preflash your camera has. It will work with ALL digital camera. It has 5 "beam settings" which narrow or widens the light from the flash from wide-angle to full zoom. It has five click points that position the flash at different angles for bounce flash, and the flash swivels 330 degrees, left or right horizontally. It also has four power modes: full, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 - a very nice feature generally found on higher-end pro flash models. It also came with a mounting bracket (don't laugh, most don't come with this, resulting in another trip to the camera shop...)

As far as build quality goes, it's fine, don't worry about it. No it's not built like a tank but nor is it too flimsy. It has one of those "you better be careful" annoying battery doors, though. I think the silver color was a poor choice, gives it a cheesey plastic-y look so it's a perception more than anything. It's one of those: "features", "price", "build-like-a-brick", pick any two, type of things.

Bottom line - great, full-featured, decent powered reasonably-priced choice. Especially for big-zoom digicam owners whose camera uses a preflash. The only other flash that is this powerful and this versitile goes for $120 online. The lower-end ones from Quantaray and Sunpack that go for $30 don't touch this. Definitely worth the extra few dollars for the additional range and features. The Vivitar DF 200 will add a whole lot of capability to your camera, especially if it's a big zoom.