Using an old Toshiba Flash with Canon 400d

Bend The Light

Hi,

I have been loaned an old flsh which was used about 30 years ago for wedding photography, It's a Toshiba QCC8 (pics below)
I have a bracket to mount it next to and a little above the camera, or I can hand hold it. I have a trigger which appears to work with the on-camera flash.

Question: I am going tomorrow evening to a "roundhouse" where lots of steam engines and old diesel locomotives are stored. I am going about 6.30 - 7pm, so the light will be fading, and some of it will be indoors. not sure of the lighting situation, other than this will be a BIG building...How would I use this flash to my advantage (if at all?). I could lay it down, too, somewhere away from the camera, but not sure on how good the trigger is at picking up the on-camera flash from a distance...I could have about 2m of cable from the trigger to the flash gun.

Here's the pics...

Art Scott

Do not attach to cam without a SAFE SYNC attached or a RF trigger....it can easily destroy your electronics............
As to how to use....manual...set came and flash at native ISO (100 or 200 which ever is your lowest) set aperture
at 8 and shutter at your native sync speed (I do not know canon)......shoot a few shots and chimp look at histogram
and you want to be just a tad to the right of center on all the exposures ...........mount on a tripod or light stand to
make moble as possible especially oif you can get an RF trigger
I have been using this brand of RF trigger for a few years now and they have always worked great.

ziggy53

First a caution: do not try to plug this flash directly into a modern dSLR camera. (Edit: Like Art just said.) The trigger voltage is likely to be very high and designed for mechanical contacts used in older cameras.

The optical slave is very likely a simple, first-pulse, slave and will fire prematurely if triggered from a TTL type flash which generally has a pre-flash before the main flash. Be sure to trigger it with an "auto" or manual external flash unit on the host camera (unless you are lucky enough to have an in-camera flash capable of manual operation).

I suggest lighting the scene primarily with the Toshiba flash and positioning it where you need the key light to come from. You could try using a photographic umbrella, if one is available, as either reflected or shoot-through. You might have to rig something to hold the flash in the right position. The flash used to control the remote flash is generally used as a fill light.

If nothing else I suggest bringing something upon which to diffuse the flash, either by reflection or shoot-through. A large white sheet is often used.

Bend The Light

Thanks guys. I have no means of connecting the flash directly to the camera, so no fried electrics here!

The remote flash DOES fire prematurely when I have a Focus-assist setting on the camera, when I remove this setting, it seems to work fine.

I appreciate the set up advice - I will be on a tripod. I think the canon has settings for flash sync in Av mode of either "Auto" or "1/200" (is this what you meant, Art?). I will have a little assistant with me - my daughter - she can hold the flash where I need it, I think.

Cheers

Art Scott

Av is Canon speak for Aperture Preferred..I believe and that is the assumption I will go on here........AV is ok if your flash and camera can communicate to each other....
but since that is not possible with this set up.....then camera needs to be in manual mode and set your aperture and shutter as I said above......the flash has setting also just make sure the
flash is at the same iso as the camera and take some test shots....then adjust camera accordingly....................

In this instance I would only use AV mode for shots during the ceremoney when I cannot use flash.....for all flash I would be in manual mode

Good Luck