Compatibility of Canon Flash range with other SLRs

[fschoonbaert]

I have been a fan of the Canon Flash range for a while and have a 550EX, 420EZ and 430EZ. It allows me to create interesting lighting combinations and now that I am used to this system I would like to keep using it as well as expanding it.

I am however thinking ofadding a new DSLR camera and this will probably not be a canon, but a Sony A100.

Does anyone know to what extend these Flashes are compatible with Sony and other brands of DSLRs ?

[René Damkot]

Simple: Totally not. You can use them in manual mode, but I don't know if your EZ flashes have that feature. Otherwise they will put out maximum flash power.

[FlashZebra]

Another very important aspect.

The Sony Alpha 100, just like recent Minolta camera, has an oddball, proprietary, not standard size, hotshoe. I am not referring to the extra “dedicated” pins, but to the gross shape of the hotshoe.

Your Canon flash units most likely will not even fit on the oddball Sony/Minolta hotshoe.

Just look carefully at the hotshoe of the Sony Alpha 100 (or a recent Minolta camera) and you will see what I mean.

Or, look at the hotshoe in this link to see what I mean.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonydslra100/page5.asp

Enjoy! Lon

[fschoonbaert]

Thanks for your advice. I was afraid this was the case.

I did know about the odd hotshoe, but I found a number of people on eBay selling hotshoe adapters as well as adapter rings allowing other lenses such as Hasselblad, Nikkor etc to be used on an EOS camera