Minolta Auto 320X flash unit

Can a flash unit from a film set up be used with a digital camera such as a

Cannon Rebel XT. If Possible what are the best settings on the flash unit

which uses ASA 25-400 & Aperture settings.... Thank you for any information

<p>This is an old (early 80s) flash unit. As such, it predates the introduction of advances such as TTL flash metering and red-eye reduction. Still, you should be able to use the automatic mode on this flash; this means that the flash duration is set by the metering cell on the flash itself. And of course, this flash is perfectly usable if you do all the calculations yourself.</p>

<p>I strongly recommend that you should read a good tutorial/book on flash photography. There's quite a bit to be learned about how to use flash, and a quick summary doesn't cut it.</p>

The Minolta Auto 320X is an excellent flash. It has multiple auto modes (each has a recommended f-stop) and can be set to manual and manually dialed down from full to 1/16th power. There's a lot you can do with it.

One caveat is that the flash has one extra pin on the hotshoe that was for a relatively unimportant feature for Minolta cameras. None of my Minolta cameras have a connection for this pin on the hotshoe, so they just ignore it. It doesn't affect the flash at all if nothing is receiving the signal from this extra pin. However, your Canon probably has various connections on the hotshoe to connect to the extra pins of dedicated Canon flashes. It's possible the pin will line up with one of those connections and it may interfere with some other function on the camera. You could probably use electrical tape to cover the extra pin if this causes any problems.

There is no one best setting. To use manual mode: set the ASA, select N for Normal lens (or whatever is appropriate), then guess the distance of the subject, and look at the corresponding f-stop. That is the recommended exposure for manual mode (full power). The shutter speed doesn't affect how much light is captured from the flash, so you can get a good result with many different shutter speeds. Slower speeds will give you more ambient light. With the Auto modes, you set the ASA, then set the aperture to the f-stop that is lit. The flash will then measure the light reflected back and stop the flash when enough light has been detected. That means it may go up to full power, but most likely will be less than full power, so since each auto mode has a preferred f-stop, they can only be used over certain distances. The red mode has the greatest distance, but you can check the range on the dial to see which of the 3 auto modes is most appropriate for your subject. The readings on the distance dial are designed for direct flash, so if you are bouncing the flash off the ceiling, or using third-party diffusers or bounce cards, that will reduce the strength of the light that reaches your subject and you'll need to experiment to see how to compensate.

With a digital camera, you can see the results instantly and make manual adjustments. If you use manual mode, then you can adjust by changing your aperture or by dialing down the flash to 1/2, 1/4, etc. In auto mode, you can adjust the ASA up or down to compensate, or set the camera to a different f-stop than the recommended one, to let more or less light in.

If you want to try some more advanced techniques, particularly moving the flash off-camera, I recommend reading strobist.blogspot.com. This flash meets strobist's requirements for manual control. There is also some excellent info at http://www.planetneil.com/faq/flash-techniques.html