EX420 with G3

[Fai Ng]

The AF illuminator on EX420 does not lite up when using with G3. Is it normal? Thank you.

[12345Michael54321]

Yes, it's normal.

I wish the G3 could make use of the 420EX's AF assist light, but that's just not how the Great Powers at Canon chose things to be.

My guess is that this flaw will be remedied in the successor to the G5. (It should have been taken care of in the successor to the G3, but let's face it - while the G5 is a very nice camera, it's really little more than a G3.1, which is to say, a G3 variant, and hardly an all new model.)

[Fai Ng]

Michael, thanks.

[rangersvtsplash]

michael according to canon emails i got the assist beam can be used but i dont own one yet and i dont know if hes talking out of a$$.

luis

[Fai Ng]

luis, you mean Canon tells you you can use EX420's AF illuminator with G3? Did Canon tell you how? Thanks

[Bean]

You cannot use the 420EX's AF Assist Beam with the G anything. About a year ago after I purchased a G2, somebody explained in detail why it cannot be used with the G-series, and I can't remember what he said! It did make sense though. It had something to do with the G series are rangefinders as oposed to SLR's. I'll try to find it or try to remember what it was, but it was not something Canon could implement even if they wanted to without a new design. (Not a rangefinder, perhaps?)

Greg

[12345Michael54321]

rangersvtsplash, let us be charitable and say that the Canon rep was "mistaken." (Sounds nicer than calling him a liar.)

Now, tell me how close I am - I suspect he didn't flat out put in writing, "The G3 can take advantage of the 420EX's AF assist light." More likely, he gave some nebulous answer along the lines of, "The full functionality of the G3 is retained when using the 420EX."

Trust me, this matter of the G3 not being able to use the 420EX's AF assist light has been quite firmly established.

[rangersvtsplash]

that for sure michael since ive read alot of the posts on the subject but ive emailed the canon rep and he insists. got to email them again. well even by turning off the assist beam? can you use the flashes? like i said i dont have it so i dont know. think we should email canon like 100,0000000 times so they can fix the problem.


luis

[12345Michael54321]

Yes, rangersvtsplash, you can use the flash. In fact, the 420EX works extremely well with the G3. No need to turn anything off. The G3 can't use the 420EX's AF assist beam, but other than that they're a great combination.

There is no reason to keep emailing the Canon rep about this. The question has been asked and definitely answered, and nothing a Canon rep says will change the reality of it.

There is no reason to email Canon over and over, in order to get them to fix the problem. They're well aware of the issue (even if your Canon rep is ill-informed or less than completely honest regarding it), and doubtless appreciate that it would be a nice thing to correct the problem in future cameras. For various technical reasons, it couldn't be remedied in the G3/G5 generation.

[nsxpower]

That probably has something to do with the fact that G3 is neither a Type-A or Type-B camera. Its a hybrid that supports E-TTL the way a Type-A camera should, but does not used AF assist light, allow the use of "modelling light" etc. The presence of G3's own AF assit light may be disallowing operation of 420/550EX AF assist light.

There may be a conflict between how 420/550EX AF assist light pattern is seen by G-series cameras. The light emitted by 420/550EX is in a pattern of AF points of EOS 3/7, which may do G-series no good if the AF points or AF mechanism itself is very different.

I wish Canon has explaned all this to G-series users, but they never do.

[stoneylonesome]

Being rather ignorant on flashes, and before I lay out more money for a EX420 could someone tell me if the dedicated flash that I have for my Canon T-70 would work on the G3, the module that I have with the flash say's it's designed for the A-1, AE-1, AE-1 program, T50, T70 and new F1. Just don't want to short circuit my G3, I'll probably end up buying the EX420 anyway but am curios about the older Promatic FTD5600 flash that I now have...............

[dtsang831]

Well, you are talking about using your 20 year old flashes on a 2000s camera (From the 80s?). I still have a speedlite 277T for my Old Canon T70 and another sunpak for my Canon New F1. I wouldn't even try them on my G5. I took the safer route and purchased the 420EX. By the way, you can use the 420EX with other Canon Digital SLR, like the 10d or the new Rebel DSLR, just in case you want to move up in the near future...