I hopped into the wayback machine and dug out my 1976 Vivitar 283 (which
has sufficient trigger voltage to curl your toes) and popped in some
Eneloops. It just sat there. It hadn't been fired up in many years so
I thought perhaps it had died. But then (according to the manual) I fed
it some alkaline batteries and it sprang to life. Thinking maybe it
just needed its capacitor reformed at the higher voltage of the
alkalines I popped the Eneloops back in. Once again nothing. So, even
though rechargeable AA NiCD's date from about 1958 (according to
Everready) Vivitar hadn't yet taken that route by 1976.
Although that old 283 didn't work I know that newer 285's do work with
NiCD and NiMH. In fact, I think any flash whose manual states it will
work with NiCD's can be trusted with NiMH. 1980's era flashes probably
all work OK with either NiCD or NiMH. I know, because I've used them,
that Sunpak 422's, 383's, and 522's all work with NiMH. Also T-32's and
Vivitar 3500 and 550FD. These latter two are low cost, low power TTL
units. I don't know when the 3500 was produced but the 550FD dates from
1984. My Canyon 540EZ also lives quite happily on Eneloops but he's
very young. Probably dates from the early or mid 90's.
My view of it is that it's unlikely to smoke if you feed it NiCD's or
NiMH. But if it does it deserves it and you didn't need that one anyhow.
Dr. Flash
Moose wrote:
> usher99@xxxxxxx wrote:
>> Appreciate Moose's post.? Those NiMH seem very nice with a long shelf live.
> You've even had them in your house and car, in my backup camera A710. In
> fact, I lost a pair of them and the unobtrusive little white charger
> somewhere on that trip. I don't suppose they are hiding in your guest room?
>> I suppose there is a theoretical risk of
>> frying inverter circuits on an? older flash with the increased current.? Are
>> these beasties? OK with T-flashes
> T20, T32 and T Power Control 1 are all OK with NiCad, so I suppose they
> should be OK with NiMH. T18 isn't.
>> and Viv 283/285? I have seen reports that even old Metz units are OK.
>>
> This is not an area of great interest to me, so I don't remember the
> details, but there has been much discussion about it on the list. In
> particular, I seem to recall Tim reporting quite authoritatively on the
> subject of low internal resistance batteries in older flash units.
>
> Moose
>
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