Flash question

[fandy]

Hi- I have some old Sunpack 422 flashes that i used with my Nikon FE2. Can I use this with the D200 i just got or will it burn out the hotshoe.

[Mark von Kanel]

Try this site: http://www.botzilla.com/photo/strobeVolts.html it would seem the trigger voltage is about 10 volts, personally i wouldnt use it direct on a hotshoe, why would you want to anyway? its got to be the worst way to mount a flash.

i would mount it on a bracket and trigger it with a PC sync cord, youll have to use it in manual but thats not difficult and im not sure if there are any auto functions supported with this combo anyway.

if the d200 doesnt have a PC sunk socet, you can buy a hotshoe converter very cheaply or use some cheap youngo triggers.

[revi]

I'll be corrected if I'm wrong, I'm sure, but isn't a flash sync cord a straight electrical connection between the camera and the flash, akin to mounting the flash
on the hot shoe (electrically speaking)?
In that case, the camera would still feel the trigger voltage of the flash, and in this case risk getting fried.
I'd go for either wireless triggers or optical slaves to avoid the problems with trigger voltage.

[Mark von Kanel]

you might be right revi but as far as i know the max voltage for the hot shoe will be 6 v and the max voltage for a PC socket is 250v so at 10 v trigger you should be ok. but to play on the safe side triggers are always the best (if more expensive) option

update

it would appear that if you read the manual of the d200 that the max voltage you can apply to the hot shoe is the same 250 v so it looks like you are correct Revi. This contradicts much advice i have been given in the past but hey ho!

are there any electronics gurus out there?

[inkista]

you might be right revi but as far as i know the max voltage for the hot shoe will be 6 v...

It's not. From the D200 manual, p. 177 (bold emphasis mine):

Use only Nikon Speedlights. Negative voltages or voltages over 250V applied to the accessory shoe could not only prevent normal operation, but damage the sync circuitry of the camera or flash. ...

So the limit is +250V. And polarity is probably more important than voltage.

The 6V limit has been widely and erroneously asserted mostly because of that botzilla page, which is at least eight years old, was written when the first generation of dSLR camera bodies was new, and was concerned with the Canon P&S Powershot G series hotshoe. Canon had a 6V limit on the hotshoe for their first generation of dSLRs (so the Gs inherited that), but it was raised to 250V thereafter. Any Canon body newer than the original dRebel (300D) can take 250V across the hotshoe, just like Nikons.

10V is really nothing to worry about. It's those 350V Vivitar 285s you gotta watch for.

The limit is lower for cameras like Sony NEX and micro four thirds cameras--most of them are reported to come in around 20-24V. But most modern digital-era speedlights are in the 10V or under range.

[jcuknz]

I would go with Mark in the main and getting an optical trigger would use the camera's flash hidden or not from the subject to fire the Sunpak as a remote flash ... what I did until I bought a YongNuo flash with its built in trigger which usually is only about twice the price of the optical trigger units .... . A piece of card over the pop-up flash is all you need so long as some flashlight escapes sideways to work the trigger if it is reasonably close in a home situation.
You can also balance to two light sources by adding some facial tissue in front of the pop-up or else hold your finger partly in front of it ... done that twice now ... works well

You say 'some Sunpaks' so with enough triggers you can get quite adventurish in lighting quite large venues as I read one guy had done and found they all synced up well with the pop-up and camera. So probably the voltage is a moot point of little importance to what you could do?

[fandy]

Great discussion guys, Thank you.