Compatabilty.... 550D and a Speedlight 199A flash.

[Mr Felix]

I have read the post:
Speedlight, Speedlite or Flash?

But I am still confused.

I have a 550D, and the speedlight 199A (Canon) flash from the days I used an AE1-P.

Is the flash compatible with the 550D?

Though I am not sure it still works, as I have not used it for about 20 years.

[William]

Don't use it till you've checked out the Voltage Compatibility , You can fry things I'm told , There is a thread about using old flashes on new Digital devices on this site somewhere , I'd read first

[MarkChap]

This Shows the 199A has trigger voltage of 4.99 volts, you need to keep below 6 volts on your hotshoe, so you should be good.
Except That
You will not have any TTL metering at all, the flash will fire but only on full power each and every time

[Mr Felix]

Mark,

Thanks.

That is some good news. Shame about no TTL metering. I wonder why it doesn't support it. It did on the AE1-P.

Oh well. I will have to learn how to use it again too.

What I remember was I would put the camera in AUTO mode put on the flash and all would be good.

Oh well.

[JM Tran]

it will fire fine, in MANUAL mode only and power can be adjusted by the flash.

dont worry about the voltage, modern DSLRs can take a few hundred volts before something will go wrong - they have very high volt tolerance, so only a few volts from the flash will do no harm at all.

[Mr Felix]

I was nearly going to start a new thread, but shall ask here first:

Ok, "we've" determined the flash will work.

On the AE1-P it did TTL (which took me a second to remember what that was). Just asking, but why don't the new cameras do TTL metering as well? I know they all have their "popup flash" but if/when you use an external one why not include TTL to help make everyone's life easier?


Ok, I'm mucking about with dark-ish shots and macros now as well. (See my post in the macro section if you want.) and I have read about this "Dragging the flash" (as it is called in the mag I read) where you take a picture with the flash, but leave the shutter open after the flash - well there are othe ways of doing it too, but that is how it was described.

There is a setting about the flash delay for external flashes on my camera (Canon 550D).

Now, that "hot foot" at the top is where the signals go in/out of the camera to the flash.

Usually the flash sits there but sometimes, it can be co-located and a cable connects them.

Now, I'm curious/board and wanting to do something.
WHO can help me learn what those connections do and how to maybe buy the connection and make a cable to my own flash so I can sync external lights when I press the shutter?

[MarkChap]

it will fire fine, in MANUAL mode only and power can be adjusted by the flash.

dont worry about the voltage, modern DSLRs can take a few hundred volts before something will go wrong - they have very high volt tolerance, so only a few volts from the flash will do no harm at all.

Not on the Hot Shoe JM
Canon, I know as I have a couple, will take up to 250 volts on the PC sync socket if you have one, but 6 volts is the maximum on the hot shoe

Seems I can't copy and paste from a PDF document - Page 102 of the 5D manual, page 106 of the 40D manual, and finally page 130 of the 7D manual all state

Do Not connect to the cameras PC terminal any flash unit requiring 250V or more.
Do not attach a high voltage flash unit on the cameras hot shoe, it might not fire.

So they don't state a voltage for the hot shoe, but they will not accept high voltage

[JM Tran]

Not on the Hot Shoe JM
Canon, I know as I have a couple, will take up to 250 volts on the PC sync socket if you have one, but 6 volts is the maximum on the hot shoe

Seems I can't copy and paste from a PDF document - Page 102 of the 5D manual, page 106 of the 40D manual, and finally page 130 of the 7D manual all state



So they don't state a voltage for the hot shoe, but they will not accept high voltage

let me elaborate a bit more on my comment and knowledge and your post Mark

Do Not connect to the cameras PC terminal any flash unit requiring 250V or more.
Do not attach a high voltage flash unit on the cameras hot shoe, it might not fire.

I used to work at a certain Camera House in Adelaide which has one of the largest range of 2nd hand gear in Aus, which included many many old and ancient flash units such as the ancient and very big thyristor units which can generate a lot of voltage.

I can safely say the Canon 199A IS FINE, even though it is a thyristor type flash it is a little thing and isnt as old as the powerful ones that one needs to worry about. I have even sold 2 of them in the past to Nikon users as a cheap flash to learn from and muck around with, with myself using a lot of old Nikon and Canon flashes on my modern DSLRs. We even test them in the store to see how much voltage it can generate on the voltmeter if a customer wants to see the results.

From the link - http://www.chem.helsinki.fi/~toomas/...flash-faq.html

Some more primitive flash units apply a very high voltage (200-300 volts) between the hot shoe base and the central contact. These voltages may damage the sensitive electronics in modern electronic cameras. The trigger voltage, as it is called, of newer units is lower, typically less than 10 volts. If you are getting an older (used!) or otherwise primitive model, it would be a good precaution to measure the trigger voltage before using the unit. Since the voltage can be very high, proper precautions should be taken - please read the flash troubleshooting guide before you do it. You may kill yourself otherwise!

Every time I hear someone mentioning about flash, and someone comes along and warns them, there always seems to be a misunderstand as do the DOs and DONTs and its usually misguided. I see about 99.9% of ppl wanting to try an old flash that will and is safe to use get a lot of no nos from ppl who have limited knowledge about it or hearsay. I can assure the OP that it is usually the big fat primitive thyristor flashes that require a grip of their own to hold, are the ones that can be dangerous to use - hence no one buys them from the store I was at

A good article on this topic

http://www.theothermartintaylor.com/...as/000156.html

What I dont understand is the length and resources ppl go to to try and find out or make old flashes work on their cameras, when they can just easily purchase a modern fully manual flash made for strobist work ala. Yongnuo YN560, which will be twice as powerful and lots of modern features, and most of all....its safe!