Panasonic FZ20 external flash compatibility

I've recently acquired an FZ20 and was wondering if it would be safe
to use my old Canon Speedlight 430EZ flash on the external flash shoe.
According to the camera's manual the external flash should have a
trigger voltage of less than 24volts to avoid any problems but the
Canon flash manual doesn't have this info.
Any comments appreciated.

--
SR

eadg wrote:
I've recently acquired an FZ20 and was wondering if it would be safe
to use my old Canon Speedlight 430EZ flash on the external flash shoe.
According to the camera's manual the external flash should have a
trigger voltage of less than 24volts to avoid any problems but the
Canon flash manual doesn't have this info.
Any comments appreciated.

The 430EZ has a trigger voltage of only 4-5 volts, so it is OK to use with
the FZ20.

I too have an FZ20, and found the instruction manual very confusing with
regard to settings.

To save you time, I found that at about 6ft. at an aperture of F8, using
bounce flash off the ceiling, and with my flash set to manual, I get good
exposures for portraiture, but this obviously depends on your flash output.
Take away 2 stops for direct flash.

Set the camera to aperture-priority, press the exposure button on the back,
set the aperture with the 4-way switch, and the camera should adjust the
shutter because it senses the flash is in the hotshoe.

There may be other ways with different flashguns, but this works for me.

None of this is in the manual, unless I have forgotten how to read, or don't
understand the context!

You may find this website useful -
http://www.botzilla.com/photo/strobeVolts.html

Best of luck!

Dennis.

"Dennis Pogson" wrote in message
...
eadg wrote:
I've recently acquired an FZ20 and was wondering if it would be
safe
to use my old Canon Speedlight 430EZ flash on the external flash
shoe.
According to the camera's manual the external flash should have a
trigger voltage of less than 24volts to avoid any problems but the
Canon flash manual doesn't have this info.
Any comments appreciated.

The 430EZ has a trigger voltage of only 4-5 volts, so it is OK to
use with
the FZ20.

I too have an FZ20, and found the instruction manual very confusing
with
regard to settings.

To save you time, I found that at about 6ft. at an aperture of F8,
using
bounce flash off the ceiling, and with my flash set to manual, I get
good
exposures for portraiture, but this obviously depends on your flash
output.
Take away 2 stops for direct flash.

Set the camera to aperture-priority, press the exposure button on
the back,
set the aperture with the 4-way switch, and the camera should adjust
the
shutter because it senses the flash is in the hotshoe.

There may be other ways with different flashguns, but this works for
me.

None of this is in the manual, unless I have forgotten how to read,
or don't
understand the context!

You may find this website useful -
http://www.botzilla.com/photo/strobeVolts.html

Best of luck!

Dennis.

Excellent! Much obliged Dennis, the extra information was very
helpful.
The extra weight of the 430EZ gives a bit of an unbalanced feel to the
camera but I can live with that for the trade off in extra range.

--
SR