I advised my daughter maybe a year ago to buy a Canon SX30. She's been
very happy with that. In the gear clean-out I've been doing I ran
across a couple of old Vivitar, Sunpak and Minolta flashes. Since the
SX30 supports an external flash in the hotshoe I told her I'd bring her
a larger flash she could use that will give more light, more even light
and help to get rid of red-eye.
The flash that I thought was most promising was a Vivitar 3500 (manual &
auto modes, bounce and zoom head, light weight (only 2 AAs) moderate
guide number and TTL for OMs). Turned out that one was totally dead. I
was disappointed since I thought it would be the winner for her.
The next was a Sunpak Auto 355AF. That one fired up and lit the flash
with the test button. But it's also in the trash with the Vivitar 3500
since. Turns out it has the special Minolta flash foot and is only TTL.
No manual or auto modes at all.
Next was a Vivitar 550FD M/P/O. It's a cute little flash, new old stock
so I was sure it would charge and fire and it did. But the M/P/O in the
model name means it's TTL for Minolta/Pentax/Olympus. To do that it has
a total of 7 pins on the flash foot. I was a little nervous plugging
that into the hotshoe of the 5D because I could see that some of the
many pins were touching some of the control pins on the camera...
including the one that says "there's a Canon EOS flash in the hot shoe".
Well, it didn't damage the 5D but certainly had it confused. The
flash would not fire at all in auto mode. But it did work fine in
manual mode. Unfortunately, that wouldn't be much good for my daughter.
Sorry, but I chickened out when it came to the E-M5. I decided not to
risk the camera with all those pins touching something or other. It
hadn't damaged the 5D but certainly affected it.
Next was a Minolta Auto 360PX. It was the cat's meow for the Minolta
X-700. I acquired that one some time ago and knew it worked but hadn't
really examined it or read the manual (complicated control dials). But
it has some cool features. It's roughly equivalent to the power of a
T-32, TTL for certain Minolta models, 3 auto mode ranges and... much
more manual power control than a T-32. I finally noticed that it does
from full power down to 1/16 power in (get this) 1/2 stop increments. I
put it on the 5D in auto and manual modes and it works fine. I put it
on the E-M5 where it also works well in auto and manual modes. I think
this flash would work just fine on a Canon SX30... but she's *not* gonna
get this one. I'm gonna keep it. It will be the only small flash I
have that has both auto mode and fine power controls in manual mode. I
have a Canon 540-EZ (film era TTL flash) which can be used in manual
mode with multiple power levels but there is no auto mode.
That used up all the available flashes except the T-32s. I know the
T-32 works well in the Canon 5D's hotshoe and I assume it will work well
in the SX30 as well so I'll give her one of mine. The next question is
whether she'll submit to instructions on how to use it. Maybe not.
So far I have tried these and several different brands and models of OM
TTL flash units on the Minolta A1, Canon 5D and Olympus OMD E-M5. Also
the Canon 540-EZ on these same cameras in manual mode. Assuming that
you don't put an old 300 volt Vivitar 283 on the camera (and fry it) and
the flash has no more than 3 or 4 pins on the bottom of the foot, manual
and auto modes seem to work fairly well cross-brand and cross-era.
Dr. Flash
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