Speedlite 188A for Ae-1 Program

I just got a 188A flash from Japan. It was off eBay and sold as “top mint”.

 

It looks brand new and the test light glows red when using four AA 1.5V Alkaline batteries. But the flash won’t fire, when I push then test button or when I use it with my AE-1P.

 

Do you think it’s broken or am I missing something? There is no noise when powering on the flash like with a lot of other flashes I’ve used.

Edited March 7, 2019 by karlheinz

Sounds broken to me. You might want to clean all of the contacts on the hot shoe and flash, but that does not seem to be the problem.

 

Not knowing where you live, you might check out KEH or B&H (both in the USA) They guarantee their items

 

If you paid more than $30.00, you paid too much

Edited March 7, 2019 by chuck909

Yeah.. I paid $40 and thought it’d be a really fresh item.. ah well. Maybe I’ll get a refund.

For less than what you paid for the 188, B&H has a couple of 199s.

In addition to the Canon 199A, take a look at the Canon 299T. It is sort of like a 199A on steroids. It does everything the 199A does and more, and it is fully compatible with your AE-1P. It was the last flash Canon made before going to TTL metering.

 

Canon 299T Manual http://www.cameramanuals.org/flashes_meters/canon_speedlite_299t.pdf

 

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17/msowsun/Photo17/97920E3C-21FB-45A3-9B34-51CBD750A77D.jpeg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17/msowsun/Photo17/05B72BA4-F69D-45E1-A344-FE0A595AB7B5.jpeg

I'll second the 299, but they are a little harder to find. The important thing is that the 199 and 299 both have bounce. The 299 also bounces to the side and the f-stop choices are much more flexable.

 

The only disadvantage of both is that they make the camera a bit unbalanced.

 

(Yes, I do use both)