Your flash can damage your camera!

When I found out that some flash units use very high trigger voltages,
several hundred volts in some cases, I was very displeased. Not that this
presents any problem for me right now but it might in the future. I
purchased my camera and flash in 1978 and both look and work like new. But
if I buy a new camera body I might not be able to use my flash with it. The
reason for this is that many newer camera bodies have flash trigger circuits
that can tolerate no more than a few volts without burning out. Six volts
seems to be the maximum average flash trigger voltage that most current
camera bodies can tolerate.
You can blame either the flash manufacturers or the camera body
manufacturers for this sorry state of affairs, flip a coin and make your
choice but in either case you should visit this site:
http://www.botzilla.com/photo/strobeVolts.html for a list of flash trigger
voltages before you use your flash with a new camera. If you don't find
your flash's trigger voltage listed then look here:
http://www.botzilla.com/photo/g1strobe.html for an explanation of how to
measure it yourself.
If you are using (or want to use) any flash that has not been recommended by
the camera body manufacturer as compatible then you should contact them and
confirm that the flash you're using (or want to use) will not damage your
camera. They should be able to tell you the maximum flash trigger voltage
your camera can tolerate.

 

Advertising his web site under the guise of posting a helpful article.

 

Would you rather I steal the information and post it in my message? Did you
visit the page? The title of the page is "Photo Strobe Trigger Voltages".
You can read can't you? You have to scroll down quite a way to see it. You
can scroll can't you?

 

Thanks for posting that. I had lost the link. Further, I added three new data
points to the list.

Cheers,
Alan

 

I left out that the trigger voltage of my Sunpak Auto 411 is 192 volts.
This could be more than enough to fry the flash trigger circuit of some
newer cameras.

 

How exactly is that a troll?????
It is useful and I would have posted it myself in another thread!

 

o.k., got it. You didn't mean http://www.botzilla.com/photo/strobeVolts.html

 

(me) wrote:
If you don't find your flash's trigger voltage listed then look here:
http://www.botzilla.com/photo/g1strobe.html for an explanation of how to
measure it yourself.
=================================

The site says the Vivitar 2000 is unsafe to use on EOS cameras but I use
mine on my Rebel 2000 and my other Rebel without any problems. The
report shows different results from different reporters. I think they
made the newer one different from the older ones and did not change the
model number. I think I could use this flash on any camera that has a
hotshoe.

Cody,

http://community-2.webtv.net/AnOvercomer02/PhotographyLinks

 

<snip>

Lemme see if I got this right. You bought a flash unit twenty-six years ago,
and you're 'very displeased' that it might not work with a new camera? Well, I
think I have a similar problem. I got this high-performance 4-barrel
carburettor that came off my '78 TransAm, and the salesman tells me I can't fit
it onto my new petrol-injected 4WD Jeep. Boy, am I pissed, or what! Those
pesky designers, they oughta be fired for making my old junk unusable in the
name of progress. Mumble, mumble ...

Colin.

 

I forgot to mention that I have a "newer" Vivitar 2000 with a bounce
head. I paid about $20 for it and it seems to do as good as my Canon
200E.

Cody,

http://community-2.webtv.net/AnOvercomer02/PhotographyLinks

 

To avoid that awful syncing feeling I recommend a Wein Safe-Sync:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=245292&is=REG
http://snipurl.com/9vh8

If you do buy a new camera body, though, you _might_ want to compare
the state of the art today to what you are used to. Did anyone
_except_ Olympus offer 35mm TTL flash in 1978? IIRC, Nikon didn't
come on board until 1980.

 

So buy a Wein Safe Synch and stop worrying.

 

Don't be so quick to call someone a troll w/o checking the facts.

The first link provided is one I lost, and now I'm glad to have back. Second is
to get more input for the list (or at least how to measure the strobe trigger
voltage for those who don't know how).

There's nothing commercial about either of the two pages presented, just a
discrete link at the end.

This definitely falls under 'public service', unlike the bozo of a couple months
ago.

 

Fact is that some old strobes have pretty high trigger voltages (200 - 300V) and
some of the cameras we're seeing can't take it. I'm happy the poster put up
thse links ... I had lost the link from my bookmarks (and was too lazy to hunt
for them again).

Cheers,
Alan

 

He mentions it on that page, Tony, which you should have bothered to check
before your dumb reply.

 

That's how electronic flash tubes work. Remember, good high-voltage
thyristors (for low-voltage electronic switching) did not exist when
electronic flash was first invented.

Or simply connect a voltmeter to the flash contacts while the flash is
turned on and ready but not on the camera.

 

Yes, that's reasonably common knowledge, but I think to *expect* such an old flash
to work on modern electronic cameras is a bit much. The same poster considers his
camera and flash 'work like new'. The gear is 26 years old. Capacitors in the flash
gun will be at least partially dried out, reducing the capacitance and the GN, the
tube will undoubtedly have leaked gas over that period, resulting in changed
color-temperature output (probably gone blue). The camera will need a CLA to be
anything like its new condition - if he can get it done on a camera that age. Is
the lens still pristine, or has it got fungus? The gear might work, sure, but is it
'like new'? I doubt it.

IMHO it is unreasonable to expect that technology has stood still for a quarter
century so he can use his old flash on a new camera.

Colin

 

I tend to think it would have been better engineering if they had changed
the connector type when they started requiring lower sync voltages. Maybe
modify the hot shoe in some clever way so that it will still work on an old
camera, but a newer (low-voltage-requiring) camera will only make contact
with the newer-style hot shoe.

Unfortunately this was not done.

 

Well, it depends on how you look at it, IMHO. The designers sit down with the
engineering brief and design the system, camera, matching flash etc. Is it
really their responsibility to ensure that no other flash unit can be fitted to
their camera? What about responsibility regarding production costs, blown to
hell with providing anti-everything they haven't designed, just for the oddball
who might try a near 30-year-old flash? Does a car manufacturer ensure that
dangerous mods cannot be done to his models? Imagine what that would cost. I
think a degree of responsibility is called for from users of modern systems,
and not spit the dummy 'coz their legacy gear won't - and shouldn't - work with
new equipment.

Repeat, all IMHO.

Colin

 

Don't you expect your tv to work whe n you plug it into the old wall socket?
Especially when cameras have a standard hotshoe, mechanically and electrically
the same for decades, it is reasonable to expect them to be comaptible. Same
for the sync cable.

I have a 30 year old Sunpack. Little thing that I use for hairlights and such.
Works fine. The age of the flash is not so relevant and cap aging isn't as
universal as everyone likes to point out. A fellow I know is selling a pak
studio strobe set that is well over 20 years old. Works fine (has it dropped in
o/p, yeah, probably, but still delivers f/16 in the studio via umbrellas).

If the strobe is really bad I believe it will go yellow, not blue, but that
would take really bad caps... for example, if you fire studio strobes set to
1/32 of their power, they still output nominal (daylight) color, not cooler
(note that studio strobes charge the the caps to needed power, not discharge
partially in the manner of thyristor controlled flashes).

New, schmew. If it is clean and works it makes photographs, cosmetics and age
aside.

I disagree wherever a standard connector set is maintained within a genre of
products.

But for everything else, the shoe sync pin is in the same place and the
mechanics are the same. They should work without damaging the camera.

Cheers,
Alan