Stoopid flash question

I have found (or more accurately, my wife found and said "Can you get this junk out of here!") two old flash units from my deep photo past.

One may have even been my grandfather's that he gave to me late in his life - it's been that long since I've seen/thought about these.

Anyway, they are a "Sunpak Auto 221S" (oh yeah, we're talking the big time here!) and a "Nikon Speedlight SB-E."

I haven't really looked at the G3 fash options yet. Would either of these work with the G3 until I can pry some additional $$ from my wife's clenched fingers to get a real flash? I'm just looking for something to play with, I don't expect either of them would be that useful...

And as long as we're all here...what are some recommendations for flash units for the G3? The Canon 220ex is cheap enough that it might a good place to start - is it a good unit overall?

Dana

Hey Danna, no such thing as a Stoopid question. I'm new to this group, but have done a lot of reading on the G3. I think the statement below says it all.

"Some old flash units will do bad things to your Powershot camera. Never put a strobe onto the Powershot (or any other modern electronic camera, such as, say, an Elan 7), without first checking to be sure that the strobe's trigger voltage is within an acceptable range for the camera, and that the strobe doesn't have any "extra pins" that were designed for a different flash system." Check out this link:

http://www.botzilla.co​m/photo/G1strobe.html

It should answer your question and more. Look forward to seeing some of your photos here soon.

I'm new to this group too! I have a Vivitar 283 flash that is pretty old and a G3 that is, well, pretty new. The Vivitar flashgun has just a single contact on the hot shoe, but it does not work with the G3 on P, Tv or M settings. I'm a little disappointed about this, and I suspect Canon have set the camera up to accept only Canon units.

A nice addition to the next model would be a PC contact socket (to take the standard sync cord from large hammerhead units).

James Carter
Edinburgh

Thanks, that's very helpful. I'll read up via the link you provided and be very carefull before I try any of the older flashes.

In fact, I could probably use your cautionary info to convince my wife we "have to" get a new 220ex.

Dana

Dana, regarding the old flashes, I would not connect them directly to the G3. Theoretically you could use one of those slave trigger units, with your inbuild flash as the trigger, but... Canon is using a "pre-flash" to measure the correct exposure before the real flash pops, this messes up the slave thingy.

Regarding the flash, I would look at the 420EX, which is more powerful and has a swivel/tilt head that is very very useful.

Thanks for the advice, Thomas. I'll look into the 420EX as well...

Dana