Canon Speedlite 300TL

<p>I have an old CANON SPEEDLITE 300TL that I bought for my Canon T90 back in 1988. I now have a Canon Rebel XT. I cannot seem to get the fllash to work using Manual or FEL mode on the flash. When I slightly depress the shutter button to auto focus, the camera flashes before I take the picture but does not flash when I take the picture.<br>

DMR</p>

<p>They are'nt compatible except in manual mode (maybe). You need the ETL series, to work with the newer digital cameras. Or a third-party ETTL compatible model, check www.adorama.com or amazon.com<br>

Check out also www.bobatkins.com he has a good overview on Canon Flashes.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>It's not very useful with a digital camera. As noted it won't work in TTL mode. And it only has high and low manual settings.</p>

<p>I have one of these, which I using a while back as a very simple strobist-type manual flash. As chap points out above it's limited to Manual Hi (1/1) and Manual Low (1/16) settings in that context, albeit that it pumps out a fair amount of light and costs almost nothing to replace. And the trigger voltage is benign.</p>

<p>As I understand it, the pre-flash you're experiencing is a legacy of A-TTL, which was Canon's big thing at the time of the T90. If you set it to Man Hi or Man Lo it should at least <em>fire</em> on your 350D, but the camera will have no control whatsoever over the duration of the flash or anything automatic. If it doesn't fire at all there might be something wrong with the foot. Oddly, my unit fires on my 5D MkII but not on my old 10D, although other flash units work fine on the 10D; it could be that certain digital bodies are unhappy with it.</p>

<p>I tried it on my old Kodak DCS 560 a while back (a Kodak digital back mated to a Canon EOS-1N film body, which used TTL flash). It seemed to work although not very well.</p>

<p>I would be tempted to sell it with the T90, assuming that it's still working, and buy a used 430EX (for example). I still have mine, although I've replaced it with a pair of those Yongnuo YN-560s, which are also manual-only, but far more flexible.</p>