Canon T1i with Vivitar 283 flash

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Tardigrade37
Posts: 134
Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2008 7:38 pm

Canon T1i with Vivitar 283 flash

Post by Tardigrade37 »

Hi All,
I'm trying to use a Vivitar 283 flash with a Canon T1i, but it doesn't seem to fire the flash under any mode. The flash is connected via a PC sync cord off of a Wein Safe Sync. It works fine with my Nikon D70 and works fine when the test button is used. The camera will move the mirror and stall until I press the flash button on the body itself. Any ideas? Thanks!
Chris

DaveW
Posts: 1702
Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2006 4:29 am
Location: Nottingham, UK

Post by DaveW »

Afraid electronics are a mystery to me, but could it be wrong polarity?:-

http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/fo ... ype/thread

From the above:-

"It may be the polarity of the lights that's the issue. I can't remember whether the 350D has a sync socket but if it does it's possible it uses a reverse polarity to the lights (I've had this at club studio nights with my 20D). I believe that you can get polarity reversing connectors to sort this."

http://photo.net/canon-eos-digital-camera-forum/004fHu

http://www.botzilla.com/photo/G1strobe.html

from the above link:-

"What About Polarity?

Recently, it's been pointed out by Tuan Tran that the electrical polarity of the strobe trigger circuit could be significant for electronically-triggered hotshoes like those used on EOS and Powershot. A few strobes won't fire at all — and seem to have polarities that are the reverse of that used by Canon (center post positive). Potentially, center-pin negative flashes will always fail regardless of their trigger voltage! Just how many such strobes really exist in the world is still an unknown as of this writing, but we'll be looking into it."


This is from Nikon's site, so Canon may be the reverse situation:-

"All current Nikon cameras that are equipped with a Hot Shoe flash bracket conform to this standard (0-250v) . Do not use flash equipment that uses negative voltage or a voltage over 250v with Nikon cameras, as this may damage circuitry within the camera. (Please check the trigger voltage with the manufacturer of the flash equipment before use with your Nikon camera)."

DaveW

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