20D compatibility third party flash question

[jeremiah_johnston]

I am considering an upgrade from the Digital Rebel XT to the EOS

20D, the rebel is great, all my third party lenses work with it. The

build quality is a little bit low, but to be expected to get the

price under $1000. The one thing that does not work with it are my

two Quantaray 9500A and PZ-1 external flashes, EOS dedicated for my

Elan 7e. The guy at my local camera store said the D. Rebel XT will

not work with these flashes because they are remaking third party

flashes to be specifically dedicated to fit the new digital cameras.

Does anyone know if these two flashes will work with the 20D, this

would seal the deal to upgrade in my opinion? Thanks for the info

[steve_dunn2]

<p>I don't know for sure, so take this with a grain of salt. But it's very likely the flashes won't work with the 20D. The Elan supports TTL, A-TTL, and E-TTL; the Drebel and 20D support only E-TTL. Only a handful of third-party flashes do E-TTL, and I suspect that these are not among those flashes; they're probably TTL-only.</p>

 

<p>If they have manual power settings or a full auto mode (in which the flash itself, not the body, is responsible for metering), you may be able to get them to work with one or both bodies.</p>

 

<p>If you are still considering upgrading to the 20D, take the flashes to your local camera store and ask if you can try them on it. Your lenses should work; in general, any third-party lens which works on a newer EOS body will also work on a slightly older EOS body. But it wouldn't be at all unwise to take the lenses along, too, and try them as well.</p>

[bobatkins]

You're upgrading from an XT to a 20D already?

 

How long have you had the XT? They've only been available for a couple of weeks.

 

If the flashes won't work with an XT, they won't work with a 20D either.

[peter_phan]

It seems like a false economy to upgrade to a 20D just to try to use a couple of cheap, third-party Quantaray flashes. If the Quantaray flashes don't work with the XT, they are unlikely to work with the 20D. It's your flashes that need upgrading. Even if you do upgrade to a 20D, you'll still want to upgrade your flashes.

[jeremiah_johnston]

Well I'm definitely not making the decision based on the flash factor, it would just be an added bonus. I really want to upgrade due to size of XT (my hands are a little to big for this body, plastic body, annoying rattle below the flash housing, second wheel on the 20D for adjusting aperture and shutter speed which my élan 7e has and I missed on the XT, overall the XT seems to be a quality camera for the $$ but for me personally the 20D seems to be a better fit. I was just hoping that it might work with the two external flashes but it looks like the answer is no. Here is another question, why does canon do this to their customers, if they are buying third party already its not like they make any more money off of the deal unless the third party vendors are giving kickbacks to canon. Who knows, looks like if I go with the 20D or stay with the XT I will need a new flash. Do canon flashes have that much more of an advantage over third party (enough to justify the huge price difference that is)?

[peter_phan]

<i>annoying rattle below the flash housing</i>

<p>

That rattling below the flash housing is most likely the orientation sensor. It's a small gravity device that flops around depending on what orientation the camera is in. The orientation of this gravity device tells the camera if it's in vertical or horizontal orientation, and it uses this information to tag the image so that it displays in the correct orientation in the LCD review and when you download your images. On the 20D, the sound is barely noticeable in normal use, though. However, if you rattle the camera back and forth, you'll be able to hear the rattling of the orientation sensor under the flash housing. If you don't want to hear the rattling sound, don't rattle your camera!

<p>

As for why third-party flashes aren't always compatible with Canon flash systems, that's the responsibility of the third-party flash manufacturer, not Canon. Third party manufacturers reverse engineer Canon's technology so that their stuff can be compatible with Canon's technology. Some manufacturer's keep their products up to date better than others. The Sigma EF-500 Super DG flash, for example, is a third-party flash that is fully compatible with E-TTLII. Your Quantarays are just outdated. And obviously, Canon doesn't want to give away any of their technological information to third-party manufacturers because they want you to buy Canon's OEM stuff.

[jimstrutz]

Yeah, but older Canon E and EZ series Speedlites won't work with Canon DSLRs either. It's not just a third party problem.

 

When Canon designed their DSLRs, they did not make any provision for standard TTL (OTF) metering. Presumably, the digital sensors do not work with TTL OTF metering, so Canon resorted to provision for pref-flash metering only. If your flash isn't E-TTL capable, it won't work on any modern Canon DSLR.

 

Canon wasn't the only camera manufacturer to do this with digital SLRs.