Well, I’m a little sad to see that Vivitar has gone the way of the dodo bird. I credit Vivitar with giving me the first tantalizing taste of studio lighting. I started out with one ancient Vivitar 280 flash that my uncle gave me. Using a weird little proprietary hotshoe adapter, I hooked it up to the hot shoe on my 3 megapixel Epson point and shoot camera. For several months, I had lots of fun experimenting with this combination. That’s how I was able to get photos like my scary “Water Boy” image, which inexplicably I had initially called “Water Jesus.”

Anyway, I subsequently purchased a couple more Vivitar 280 flashes, and slave triggers to set them off. I bought some umbrellas and light stands to hold them up. I was off to the races with studio light. I still use these flashes on occassion. I like them because I can control the flash duration using the Vivitar varipower adapter. They can be used outdoors where my studio strobes can not follow.

It seems that the Vivitar name has been sold off to another company. That means that there will probably still be Vivitar products, but I doubt the good old 280 will be available in the future. Goodbye Vivitar. I’ll miss you!