The Use of Non dedicated Flash on Canon EOS Camera
Filed Under camera and photo
Prior to using a Generic Non dedicated flash on the Canon EOS camera, you have to check the trigger voltage of the Flash. The Canon lines of Speedlite flashes do not use more than 6 volts with their trigger circuits. The Canon EOS 1, A2/A2E, 10s, 630, Elan, RT and Rebel operate with 6 volts as the maximum voltage going through their triggering circuits. Therefore you have to make sure that the generic flashes also adhere with this limitation.
Any trigger circuits which requires more than 6 volts could possibly damage the X-Sync contact of the camera, the shutter units or connecting wire. Damage might not be immediate and may result over a period of time. Furthermore the high voltage passing through the Camera connecting wire might also generate electro magnetic “noise” resulting in unwanted adverse effects on the camera. Errors can occur with metering, shutter speed, aperture size etc depending on the camera models and which part of the circuit layout is affected.
To test a Flash trigger circuit voltage level, you just need a simple voltmeter. This can be purchased at any Radio Shack stores. Just connect the positive lead to the positive of the PC contact of the sync cord and the negative lead to the ground of the PC sync cord. For those Hot Shoe mounted flash units, the positive lead should be connected to the middle of the shoe mount while the negative should be connected to the ground contact on the side of the lock nut. All Multimeters or Voltmeters have different setting for you to test the DC voltages. If you do not know the voltage, then it is best to start testing in the high range downwards.
There is also a way which you can fire a flash without a Sync cord. To do this, you need the Speedlite 420EZ or 430EZ set at 1/32 power under the manual flash mode. Make certain that the optical slave trigger of the flash are turned on. In essence, you are making use of the bounce feature of the flash to redirect the flash light to the optical slave trigger. You can also use wireless radio transmitters and receivers which are connected to the PC contact and Flash Power pack to fire the Studio flash. These wireless gadgets are available from companies like Lindahl and Quantum Instruments.
If the Studio Flash is not firing through the EOS Camera, you should check the following listed below:
1. Make sure that the PC Socket adapter’s shoe is not made from metal. Metal shoes will result in a short with the triggering circuit. To circumvent this problem, just use a Canon PC socket adapter made from Plastic.
2. Make sure that the flash units polarities are in the correct order with the X-Sync of the camera contact point. The reversed polarities are normally caused by a diode which is coupled to the camera’s X-Sync contact for the protection of the camera internal flash. To correct this problem, simply reverse the polarity of the Sync Cord.
(3) If the above two solution still do not work, then the best way is to use the methods described above to fire studio flash safely.
Tags: camera accessories, photographs,
