D60 with Studio flash

[sbkearne]

What happened to the X (flash sync mode) setting on the D60 which was available on EOS A2E? Is it combined with other options or not available? Has anyone gotten the D60 to work with the Novatron 600 or compatible flash unit? If so could you please give me some pointers. I am using the same cable that I used with the EOS A2E.

Currently all pictures are almost pure white using the Novatron 600. The D60 will set off the Novatron flash but I see no other indications that the camera knows of its present, including the internal flash pops up in certain modes.

Page 96 of the D60 instruction manual give minimum information on non canon flashes.

[Cal Maier]

You will have to shoot the D60 in the Manual mode in order to use any studio strobes with it. The camera has no way of measuring the amount of light from these strobes. It's obvious that you are shooting the camera in the Auto or one of the "scene" modes that would pop up the internal flash when the exposure reading calls for it. The pc terminal would fire any strobe that is plugged into the camera but the camera meter would not be able to measure the exposure, you would get a greatly overexposed photo, because the camera would select too wide an aperture for the amount of light available in one of the Auto modes.

If you own a light meter you sould be able to measure the amount of light that is falling on your subject and adjust the camera accordingly.

If you do not have a light meter then you should make some test exposures in the following way.
Set the camera to f/8 @ 1/125 in Manual
Set your strobe light half power(if you can adjust the output power)
Take a photograph. You should get some sort of exposure now and this will allow you to increase or decrease the aperture and or the output of your lighting in order to acquire a properly exposed photo.

One thing that you should be aware of with digital cameras is that some external strobe lights will release too large a voltage through the sync cord for most digital cameras and you could damage your PC terminal and/or your camera when firing lights with the PC sync.
A safer way is to use radio slaves such as Pocket Wizards or something like a Wein Safe Sync between the camera and the strobe.

Anyway Good luck and have fun!

Cal

[dbailey]

I'm not sure this is correct. I checked on this also and found the voltage concern was when you placed the flash on the hotshoe. The PC terminal was designed for the high voltage flash units and would not have any effect on the electrical circuits in the camera.

The voltage regulator would be placed on the hotshoe between the flash and the camera if the hotshoe was used. For the D60, the PC sync was a great additional designed for the studio photographer.

I have used Novatron units with my D60 and they work great. In manual mode, you can use a flash meter or adjust the apeture after taking tests shots. There is also a custom white balance setting to use with flash which makes a difference.

Cheers.



cal maier wrote:
You will have to shoot the D60 in the Manual mode in order to use any studio strobes with it. The camera has no way of measuring the amount of light from these strobes. It's obvious that you are shooting the camera in the Auto or one of the "scene" modes that would pop up the internal flash when the exposure reading calls for it. The pc terminal would fire any strobe that is plugged into the camera but the camera meter would not be able to measure the exposure, you would get a greatly overexposed photo, because the camera would select too wide an aperture for the amount of light available in one of the Auto modes.

If you own a light meter you sould be able to measure the amount of light that is falling on your subject and adjust the camera accordingly.

If you do not have a light meter then you should make some test exposures in the following way.
Set the camera to f/8 @ 1/125 in Manual
Set your strobe light half power(if you can adjust the output power)
Take a photograph. You should get some sort of exposure now and this will allow you to increase or decrease the aperture and or the output of your lighting in order to acquire a properly exposed photo.

One thing that you should be aware of with digital cameras is that some external strobe lights will release too large a voltage through the sync cord for most digital cameras and you could damage your PC terminal and/or your camera when firing lights with the PC sync.
A safer way is to use radio slaves such as Pocket Wizards or something like a Wein Safe Sync between the camera and the strobe.

Anyway Good luck and have fun!

Cal

[sbkearne]

Thanks for the information. Not being able to read the flash from the Novatrons is the same problem I had with my old Nikon 950 digital camera, except I wasn't able to use the sync cord. The D60 does offer better a range of settings so I am able to get the right picture more often. The D60 also allows me to zoom in/out without manually needing to change the exposure settings, the Nikon 950 would not. So I have stepped forward some from the old digital camera but not as much as I had hoped for.

Now I still have to figure out the internal flash/ hotshoe flash underexposure problem. The Flash exposure lock has helped some as has setting a flash exposure compensation of 1.5 or 2. Doing either feels more like working around a problem instead of fixing it. Would like to go head to head with another D60 locally to compare flash results but no local stores have the camera.