Flashing the Canon A720

First of all, for those of you who are interested in Dima's condition, the
tests came back last week, and the tumour is malignant.

The vet also said she noticed some small spots on Dima's liver while she was
removing Dima's spleen. Thus, Dima is, for all intents and purposes,
retired.

The vet says that, on a scale of 1 to 4, the severity of the cancer would be
at the 3rd stage. Thus, we should prepare ourselves for as little as a
couple of months, but the type of cancer she has -- hemoragic sarcoma
(spelling?) -- is sufficiently unpredictable that she could have up to six
or eight months.

At present, the surgery has helped her quite a bit. She has more energy,
and is even playful at times. I'm hoping the snow will melt quick enough
for me to take her outside and get some shots to post in her honour.

In preparation for those shots, I dragged some of my old flashes out. I'm
hoping to get a nicely lit, three or four flash shot, but I've noticed some
interesting effects when I try to use some of my odd assortment of flashes
with my Canon A720.

First of all, I shot a few tests with my HF-DC1, the remote, slave fired
flash Canon produces for the A series cameras. This flash works great in
the various auto modes, but I can't seem to get it to fire when the camera
is in manual mode.

Up until now, this hasn't been a problem, as I've been mainly playing around
with the various auto modes, and tended to shoot existing light when in
manual mode. However, I have a couple of flashes I want to use for Dima's
shots that will only work with the A720 in manual mode, or, at least, they
work best in manual.

My old Pentax AF 240Z flash tends to over-power the camera's circuitry when
in the auto modes. It works wonderfully in manual mode, but the image goes
really dark when in any of the auto modes. My Canon Speedlite 540 ez has a
similar problem when at or near full power, but works relatively well when
around 60% or less of full output.

Now, having said all that, I'm wondering if anyone knows how to get the
HF-DC1 to work in manual mode, or why non-HF-DC1 flashes won't work properly
in the auto modes with the A720. (Yes, I know they can't be sync'd with the
camera's circuitry. But, I think they should work if triggered by a slave.)

I have a couple of sighted volunteers who are helping me to read through my
manuals, but they aren't photographers, so the search for info related to
this problem has been slow and non-productive. I'd appreciate whatever
insight you can offer.

Thanks,
Dudley

Once again, if you love dogs, think about donating to Guide Dogs for the
Blind at:

http://www.guidedogs.com

or,

1-800-295-4050

Dima has been a great guide, and GDB has been incredible in helping her to
retire with as comfortable a life as possible.

Dudley Hanks wrote:

First of all, for those of you who are interested in Dima's condition, the
tests came back last week, and the tumour is malignant.

The vet also said she noticed some small spots on Dima's liver while she was
removing Dima's spleen. Thus, Dima is, for all intents and purposes,
retired.

The vet says that, on a scale of 1 to 4, the severity of the cancer would be
at the 3rd stage. Thus, we should prepare ourselves for as little as a
couple of months, but the type of cancer she has -- hemoragic sarcoma
(spelling?) -- is sufficiently unpredictable that she could have up to six
or eight months.

Hello, Dudley:

It's "hemorrhagic sarcoma," actually.

At present, the surgery has helped her quite a bit. She has more energy,
and is even playful at times. I'm hoping the snow will melt quick enough
for me to take her outside and get some shots to post in her honour.

edited for brevity

Sad news, indeed. One hopes that you'll have enough time to snap lots of
pics of Dima, at least.


Cordially,
John Turco