The Awkward Flash

waxycamera

waxycamera

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Lewis
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For quite a while now i have had a Yongnuo YN460 and a set of Yongnuo CTR-301P Wireless triggers, and they have been great for everything ive needed to do with them.

But recently i was lent/given a Canon 540EZ, at first i didn't think it would work as i shoot nikon, but it works fine on My D90.

Because i only have one receiver i thought i would just set it as my slave and use my Yongnuo to trigger it. Wasn't having it, read somewhere that it can only be triggers by other canon flashes.

So then i though i could (do it the other way round) use the receiver to fire the canon and then set my Yongnuo to slave. i used the test button on the top of the transmitter and they both fire! I then put the transmitter on my camera and fire, but all my images are black, the flashes are both still firing, i then thought it was the sync speed, so i lowered my shutter speed and still nothing! i kept lowering the shutter and then boom i have my image, but i have to do it a 1/25!!! where as my Yongnuo is fine at 1/250?

why is this? i imagine the canon flash is just 'being awkward' is there anything that can be done? different wireless triggers? or just forget about the canon flash?

Cheers, sorry for the long post
 
It's a synchronisation (not sync speed) issue. The flash is firing at the wrong point in the shutter cycle. When you slow the shutter down a lot the 2 things overlap.

I can't really follow what you're doing though - can you draw me a picture?
 
Is the Canon flash on the camera or off? What mode is it in?

It might be possible to fix this but I still can't figure where all the bits are.
 
Canon flash works fine on camera, but when i place it off camera and use my yongnuo wireless triggers i have to lower my shutter speed.

An both the flash and camera are in manual

My other flash works fine with the triggers, its just the canon
 
So the receiver is attached to.....?

What is triggering:
1. The camera
2. The Canon flash
3. The other flash
 
If I'm reading this right, you've already fired a CANON flash designed for film cameras mounted to your NIKON digital camera :eek:
 
Dino f said:
If I'm reading this right, you've already fired a CANON flash designed for film cameras mounted to your NIKON digital camera :eek:
Click to expand...

I was going to ask about this I bought a Jessops flash from fleabay to use with my D70 but seem to remember reading that using a film flash can damage my camera is this so ?

Thanks Mark
 
As far as I know, the trigger voltage on flashes designed for film cameras is a lot higher than ones used for digital. They are ok on triggers. Also the metal control pins on the foot of the flash are in different places for different cameras. I certainly wouldn't risk mixing everything up like that. Could cause real damage.
Dean.
 
Thank you Dean, I haven't tried using it yet so at £8 I haven't lost a lot :) I might see about a remote trigger though

Mark
 
Dino f said:
As far as I know, the trigger voltage on flashes designed for film cameras is a lot higher than ones used for digital. They are ok on triggers. Also the metal control pins on the foot of the flash are in different places for different cameras. I certainly wouldn't risk mixing everything up like that. Could cause real damage.
Dean.
Click to expand...


Not neccessarily. A quick google shows the trigger voltage of a 540EZ is only around 3.5v so it's perfectly fine using on digital.

A lot of folk assume just because it's an old flash it will blow up your dslr. Not exactly true, although it's definately worth checking first with sites such as this

The centre pin is actually the one that fires the flash, the other pins control different functions like TTL or awaking the flash from sleep. Nothing wrong with using a different brand of flash as long as your are fine with it being 100% manual (I use a Nikon flash with my Pentax).

The transmitter mounted on your hotshoe might be the issue. As Yongnuo don't make transmitters for Pentax's, I use a nikon variety and mount on my hotshoe, the flash misfires like crazy. The simple, 100% proof fix for this is simply to mount the transmitter backwards on the hotshoe (either this or tape over all the contacts bar the centre one). Might be worth a try.
 
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