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Hi all,

I am a bit confuse with flash hotshoe. Can we use different brand of
flash with the camera? Say using Nikon Speedlight on Olympus digicam
manually?

TIA for your answer?

Hartono Nugroho <> writes:

> Hi all,
>
> I am a bit confuse with flash hotshoe. Can we use different brand of
> flash with the camera? Say using Nikon Speedlight on Olympus digicam
> manually?
>
> TIA for your answer?

There is an ISO standard for flash hot-shoes that most manufacturers follow for
dumb flashes where the only communication between the camera and flash is a
single pulse to fire. Minolta is the only manufacturer that I'm aware of that
doesn't use the standard hot-shoe (but there may be others).

If a camera maker supports additional features, such as x-TTL support (TTL ==
through the lens) where the camera and flash have an extended dialog, it uses
additional pins. Obviously you could have a situation where say Canon has a
pin that means something and Olympus put a pin in the exact location for
something else, but generally the extra pins are at different locations for
different manufacturers.

Most smart flashes will become generic if the additional pins aren't provided,
so as long as the pins between two different manufacturers are in different
spots, you can use the flash as a dumb flash. However, not all smart flashes
do this, so you need to check on a case by case basis.

To use a generic flash that has a auto-thrystor (a simple light meter) you need
to use your camera in manual mode, setting the ISO speed and f/stop to match
the flash, and setting the shutter speed appropriately (faster shutter speed
means more of the light will come from the flash itself and not the background,
but some cameras like SLRs have a maximum speed that they will sync with a
flash). If you have a dumb flash that doesn't have an auto-thrystor you need
to divide the distance to the subject by the guide number to get the f/stop.

Another fly in the ointment is flash voltage. Older flashes, especially those
designed for range finder SLR film cameras would shoot hundreds of volts
through the flash terminal, which can fry modern automatic focus cameras and
digital cameras. The standard place that talks about flash voltage is:

http://www.botzilla.com/photo/strobeVolts.html

There are two manufacturers (Metz available worldwide, and Promaster available
in some USA independent camera stores) that I'm aware of that make some of
their smart flashes in two parts, the flash head, and model specific adaptor.
If you have one of these flashes, you just need to get a different adaptor for
the other camera.

--
Michael Meissner
email:
http://www.the-meissners.org

In article <>, Michael Meissner
<> wrote:

> There are two manufacturers (Metz available worldwide, and Promaster available
> in some USA independent camera stores) that I'm aware of that make some of
> their smart flashes in two parts, the flash head, and model specific adaptor.
> If you have one of these flashes, you just need to get a different adaptor for
> the other camera.

sunpak also makes modular flashes.

Thanks, I check the website and my SB26 is rated below 2V so it should be
save to use in any camera brand. BTW, how do you measure the voltage of
your flash? I just want to make sure and test mine myself.

Many thanks again.



On Thu, 18 Dec 2003 21:40:57 -0500, Michael Meissner wrote:

> Hartono Nugroho <> writes:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I am a bit confuse with flash hotshoe. Can we use different brand of
>> flash with the camera? Say using Nikon Speedlight on Olympus digicam
>> manually?
>>
>> TIA for your answer?
>
> There is an ISO standard for flash hot-shoes that most manufacturers follow for
> dumb flashes where the only communication between the camera and flash is a
> single pulse to fire. Minolta is the only manufacturer that I'm aware of that
> doesn't use the standard hot-shoe (but there may be others).
>
> If a camera maker supports additional features, such as x-TTL support (TTL ==
> through the lens) where the camera and flash have an extended dialog, it uses
> additional pins. Obviously you could have a situation where say Canon has a
> pin that means something and Olympus put a pin in the exact location for
> something else, but generally the extra pins are at different locations for
> different manufacturers.
>
> Most smart flashes will become generic if the additional pins aren't provided,
> so as long as the pins between two different manufacturers are in different
> spots, you can use the flash as a dumb flash. However, not all smart flashes
> do this, so you need to check on a case by case basis.
>
> To use a generic flash that has a auto-thrystor (a simple light meter) you need
> to use your camera in manual mode, setting the ISO speed and f/stop to match
> the flash, and setting the shutter speed appropriately (faster shutter speed
> means more of the light will come from the flash itself and not the background,
> but some cameras like SLRs have a maximum speed that they will sync with a
> flash). If you have a dumb flash that doesn't have an auto-thrystor you need
> to divide the distance to the subject by the guide number to get the f/stop.
>
> Another fly in the ointment is flash voltage. Older flashes, especially those
> designed for range finder SLR film cameras would shoot hundreds of volts
> through the flash terminal, which can fry modern automatic focus cameras and
> digital cameras. The standard place that talks about flash voltage is:
>
> http://www.botzilla.com/photo/strobeVolts.html
>
> There are two manufacturers (Metz available worldwide, and Promaster available
> in some USA independent camera stores) that I'm aware of that make some of
> their smart flashes in two parts, the flash head, and model specific adaptor.
> If you have one of these flashes, you just need to get a different adaptor for
> the other camera.

Michael Meissner <> wrote in message news:<>...
>
> Another fly in the ointment is flash voltage. Older flashes, especially those
> designed for range finder SLR film cameras would shoot hundreds of volts
> through the flash terminal, which can fry modern automatic focus cameras and
> digital cameras. The standard place that talks about flash voltage is:
>
> http://www.botzilla.com/photo/strobeVolts.html

So old flash can damage new camera. What about the other way around?
Is there any risk that new flash (like Canon speedlite 420EX) could be
damaged if put in an old camera or in a new camera that has different
hotshoe?

br,
Ilari

Kibo informs me that (Ilari) stated that:

>So old flash can damage new camera. What about the other way around?
>Is there any risk that new flash (like Canon speedlite 420EX) could be
>damaged if put in an old camera or in a new camera that has different
>hotshoe?

The damage to cameras from old flashguns is from the high trigger
voltage in the flash. I've never heard of a camera (old or new) that has
high voltages on the flash shoe. About the only way I can imagine
someone damaging the flash in your scenario would be if the units were a
little mechanically incompatible, & you forced them into place.

--
W
. | ,. w , "Some people are alive only because
\|/ \|/ it is illegal to kill them." Perna condita delenda est
---^----^---------------------------------------------------------------

I tested two of my flashes that I've been using with the e10...a vivitar 285
and a vivitar series 1 600 mpo (minolta-pentax-olympus dedicated....real switch
hitter...use it on the pentax 645).
I thought that touching the probes of a voltmeter to the contacts on the hot
shoe fittings might fire the flashes but it didn't. Both measure within .5
volts of 6 volts, so I feel rather safe...especially because the 285 is REALLY
old and I figured the older the flash, the higher the trigger voltage.
I have had 35mm cameras that I have bought used which have had the sync
contacts fried by some previous owner's experiments with high voltage so I've
used them just for existing light stuff,,,obviously that's not an option for
digital equipment.
Pick up one of those cheap digital voltmeters at Radio Schack and touch the
probes to the flash contacts...it seems that the negative (black) goes to the
contact under the platform and the positive (red) goes to the little nubby on
the top of the platform.

argon

"Hartono Nugroho" <> wrote in message
news: s.com...
> Hi all,
>
> I am a bit confuse with flash hotshoe. Can we use different brand of
> flash with the camera? Say using Nikon Speedlight on Olympus digicam
> manually?
>
> TIA for your answer?


I used a Nikon flash unit (don't know what it was, but the owner of it uses
it on his D1x) on my Olympus E-10, but TTL did not function. I had to
shoot in manual mode.
But that wasn't hard, just took a few shots, checked the histogram, and made
adjustments accordingly. So the moral of this story is that it helps to
have a histogram viewable on your camera. You can get in the ballpark,
exposure-wise, with just the monitor, but this might require adjustments in
PhotoShop.

I don't know what the sync voltage of the flash unit was, but it was
apparantly a proper one for the DIX, so I assumed it was compatible with
Olympus. It did not hurt my Olympus, that much I can tell you.

Patrick

nospam <> writes:

> In article <>, Michael Meissner
> <> wrote:
>
> > There are two manufacturers (Metz available worldwide, and Promaster
> > available in some USA independent camera stores) that I'm aware of that
> > make some of their smart flashes in two parts, the flash head, and model
> > specific adaptor. If you have one of these flashes, you just need to get a
> > different adaptor for the other camera.
>
> sunpak also makes modular flashes.

Yep, I was unaware they did, since they don't make modules for Olympus digital
cameras.

--
Michael Meissner
email:
http://www.the-meissners.org

> > sunpak also makes modular flashes.
>
> Yep, I was unaware they did, since they don't make modules for Olympus digital
> cameras.

there is an olympus hotshoe module. while not all olympus digicams have
hotshoes, won't this work on the ones that do?