20D and Sunpak 544

3rdPlanetPhotography

We'll see who can answer this. I've had my good ole Sunpak 544 for a long time and it's in tip-top shape. I used it with a AE-1 for years and now I'd love to use it with my 20D. I've done some shots with the sync cord on my 20D a couple times but never really go it sync'd very well. All the shots seemed extremely overexposed.

On the AE-1 I was using shutterspeed of 1/60 and then using apeture to control most of the ligthing along with the settings on the flash itself.

On the 20D I'm just having trouble tuning it together. Anything under 1/125 seems very washed out.

Has anyone expeimented with this? Is the Sunpak 544 only good for my old film camera?

Thanks
kc7dji

ScottMcLeod

kc7dji wrote:

We'll see who can answer this. I've had my good ole Sunpak 544 for a long time and it's in tip-top shape. I used it with a AE-1 for years and now I'd love to use it with my 20D. I've done some shots with the sync cord on my 20D a couple times but never really go it sync'd very well. All the shots seemed extremely overexposed.

On the AE-1 I was using shutterspeed of 1/60 and then using apeture to control most of the ligthing along with the settings on the flash itself.

On the 20D I'm just having trouble tuning it together. Anything under 1/125 seems very washed out.

Has anyone expeimented with this? Is the Sunpak 544 only good for my old film camera?

Thanks
kc7dji

Naw, it's just all about metering. Keep playing around. It may be a very powerful flash. Try diffusing it.

3rdPlanetPhotography

Ok I'll play around with it more and report back.


Also, before I bought the 20d I read about the pc sync cables possibly sending too much voltage to the camera and messing the camera up. Is this really an issue with a mounted flash? I'm hoping that I'm not hurting the camera in any way.

kc7dji

JimM

I have been warned my the local camera store to only put flashes on my 20D that are made for it. I was using my old Nikon Speedlight and it was working well, but I did agree that since some of the secondary connectors could rub ones on the Canon, I decided I should wait and get a flash made for the camera.

Obviously the capacitors in the flash hold a lot of juice and I would hate to see blowing out the circuit board on the camera using the wrong flash.

I am not an expert, but my level of comfort would allow me to use only older flashes that have one center contact on my 20D, but not flashes that have side contacts that could interfere with the other side contacts on the camera.

Any other thoughts out there on this?