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Old April 17th 12, 05:40 PM posted to rec.photo.digital.point+shoot,rec.photo.equipment.misc,rec.photo.digital
Wolfgang Weisselberg
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Posts: 5,285
Default Flash will work on film camera but not digital?

DaveC wrote:
Is there any reason an "economy" flash (Achiever 630AF) will work on a film
camera but not on a digital camera.


Yep.
Apart from the voltage on the contacts:
- the flash may depend on OTF-TTF (Off the film, through the
lens) metering. Sensors reflect very different from film,
so metering *during* the flash is not supported: there
needs to be a pre-shot metering flash.

- If the flash was designed and built before the protocols
for telling the flash "flash only a small flash" and "now
fire a 1/4 flash" etc. were designed, the flash wouldn't
know how to talk to the camera nor understand the camera
(nor have the smartness to stop the flash on it's own).

- Since the flash doesn't know how to properly talk to the
camera, it'll only work on
- full power only
- manual control (if available)
- "computer flash" with manually set aperture (basically the
flash detects how much light has been reflected and shuts
off based on that and the aperture) --- if available.

None of that is what most people expect from a flash (to
'just work' usually) ...

The destination camera is Canon PowerShot G9.


If the voltage is OK and you're willing to understand and really
*work* for the flash shots getting right, you should be fine.

If the flash is a "computer flash" with inbuild sensor, and you
fix your aperture, you might be able to be happy even with snap
shooting with little restrictions.

But if you want comfort and automatics, that's not really the
flash you want.

-Wolfgang