In a world of disposable electronics it is amazing to come across the Vivitar 283 flash unit. The 283 is the VW bug of flash guns; first released, as far as I can determine, in 1975 it is still being manufactured and used extensively today. During that time it has remained remarkably unchanged (trigger voltage withstanding). Although, when first released it was state of the art with its thyristor circuitry, in today's age of sophisticated TTL, dedicated flash guns it does look somewhat clunky and dated. As its position on the technology food chain of flash guns has slipped its relative price as gone down too. People talk about buying 283s back in the 70s for $70 and that is still their street price today. Back in the 70's pros and newspaper photographers used the 283 extensively. Now they have more options and the 283 might look out of place on a pro's whiz-bang DSLR but that's not to say that the 283 doesn't still have it's uses..