Evaluation: 
Conclusion: Great Flash!
Review: Simple, powerful, sturdy workhorse flash. No needless bells and whistles. I've used 283's on and off for 20+ years and they are dependable. For strobist use, I added the VP1 for manual control and radio slaves. Works great.
Evaluation: 
Conclusion: Not Quite Ready to Retire Yet
Review: Have owned several Vivitar 283's and 285HV's on the Nikon FM2 & F3HP. I like the 283 more because I don't have to mess with the zoom head. Now using a Nikon D70 with the 283. The power is not as high as Vivitar says (ISO 400 closer to 260) but I set the camera on manual and I have auto exposure with auto focus thrown in for free! Vary shutter speed for indoor/outdoor balance. For indoors in low ceilings I can also use bounce flash with great color on grand children . Newer units sync around 8 volts but use a Wein HSBC Safe Sync which allows Vivitar cord and flash bracket for off camera flash.
Evaluation:
Conclusion: Great flash!
Review: I've been using 283 flashes for 20+ years and have had no trouble with them. An excellent unit that can take much abuse. Kudos to Vivitar!
Evaluation:
Conclusion: Vivitar 283 & 285 Work HorseFlashes
Review: I've been using Vivitar 283 and 285's for years now. I was introduced to the 285 when my backlight died on a Glamour shoot. The style my client wanted was an over exposed background to ad a haze around the subject through the softener1 filter. This required a powerful flash. The only store near the salon was a Carmen's camera and all they had in their used department was this old 285, the man in the store, a professional photographer himself, assured me that with a slave unit on the manual setting this flash would be powerful enough to do the job. He even had an SB-4 power supply and this little plastic display unit, which made a perfect little backlight stand!Not only did this flash recycle in time, it was powerful enough to do the job. This little flash even replaced my Metz for wedding work because of its compact size!
I also noticed at the time that many other press photographers were leaving their Metz's at home too! For travelling and backpacking I bring my 283, which is very light and also has the remote sensor feature so handy for close-up work.
The 283 also sits nicer on the hot shoe being lighter, making the camera less top-heavy. Which brings me to the only complaint I have with these two flashes.... or many hot shoe flashes for that matter. Shooting at crowded concerts or busy news scrums the vulnerability of the hot shoe is always on my mind, on more than one occasion I have broken this hot shoe and had to order a new one which requires a bit of assembly and downtime. To make up for this -the remote sensor makes it possible to use these flashes off camera even with the broken hot shoe and with the amount of used 283's and 285's out there at good prices, they are still the best darn portable mini flashes I've come across!
With an on camera 283 fill light, reflected, a slaved 285 with a reflector on a stand next to the camera and a 283 slaved for a back light and you have yourself a portable studio, but watch out your subject doesn't step on the backlight!
Evaluation:
Conclusion: Will work with Digital Cameras...
Review: Vivitar 283s made from the late 1990's onward will work fine with Digital Cameras. Only older units from the 1980's and early 1990's have a trigger voltage that sometimes exceeds 300v. Newer units will may function just fine depending on what voltage your camera can handle (again, research). You can test the trigger voltage of the unit by using a multimeter on the shoe pins and triggering the flash with the test button. Much more information can be found via a web search.
