powershot pro 1 questions

I recently bought a used Power shot pro 1. It is everything I need for the photos I take, mostly in stained glass.

1. There is an intermittant buzz buzz as if the camera is continually adjusting internally. Is this normal?

2. I have an old Vivitar Zoom thyristor 285 flash that I used for years on my Nikon 35 MM. Can I use this with the Canon without dammaging something electronically?

3. Canon is no longer making the pro 1 the next thing to replace it is thew power shot S2-15 . This camers has no hot shoe and less mp. does anyone know the story why they stopped making the pro 1?
is there something inheriantly wrong with the power shot 1?

Thanks for your thoughts.

sjb

Congratulations - it's a fine camera!

1. The camera is by default on continuous auto focus, and so is all the time re-focusing the lens. The setting to change it is found via the "menu" button, though I can't remember the name of the menu entry

2. I believe that some instances of this flash are okay, some are dangerous. If you have a voltmeter, power the flash on, and measure the potential from the "stud" in the base of the flash's hotshoe to the little metal spring in the "slide" part of the flash (the bit the camera uses to hold the flash down). I believe that the limit for safety is 6V

3. The general belief is that Canon wants to encourage people who might be in the Pro1 market to go for a dSLR instead. That way, customers might also go out and buy lots of lovely lenses, on which Canon makes a large profit margin. There's nothing wrong with the Pro1

regards,
/alan

Check canon's web site, regarding the next step up. I agree, they want/need customers to step up and purchase dSLR. I too have a Canon Pro 1 and often thought of stepping up into a DSLR, but the downsides i.e. cost, optional lens, weight, cost, oh yeah, did I mention cost!

I love the Pro 1 and will have it for many years to come. Plus, when the cost of dSLR's come down, I may just splurge!

I do not know the Vivitar Zoom thyristor 285 flash, but I have the Vivitar AUTO THYRISTOR 2800 and the voltage in the hot shoe is unsafe to operate with the Pro1.

I use an optical slave trigger with it. I have to use the Pro1 in Manual mode because my slave trigger fires in the pre flash.
There are inexpensive Vivitar optical slaves triggers that you can buy. Mine was home built.

I recently moved from a Pro1 to a Canon Rebel XT dSLR. I can tell you from experience, that the Pro1 is simply one of the finest cameras out there.

Granted, there are some issues with low light focusing, and high ISO noise. And shutter lag is definitely slower on the Pro1, but from a picture quality perspective, at low ISO, you'll be hard pressed to find anything better in its class. And believe me, in order to get the equivalent picture quality on a dSLR, you'll definitely be spending well over $1000 to achieve what you already get with the Pro1.

I was lucky, as I had the opportunity to get some quality glass from a friend to complement my XT, otherwise, I would have stayed with the Pro1 for a long time.

As to the buzzing sound you hear, that's just the focusing system. You've probably got it set to continous focus. Look in your manual and set it to "single".

Good Luck,