Lighting equipment for digital cameras

[bill_dewberry]

<p>Hello, I am returning to photography after a number of years away; I have much lighting equipment I used with my film cameras, and wonder if they will work with Digital, canon 5D in particular. Equipment is, Metz 45 CL,Dynalite portable Jackrabbit; Quantum T2, Dynalite studio pack M 1000 XR and related heads. In reading thru the forums, seems everyone use small flash like 580 EX, has the stuff like I lisred above gone by the wayside ?<br>

Thanks,</p>

 

[richard_quindry]

<p>Certainly you can buy the latest and greatest if you desire, but if you're used to using those units and they work for you, there's no real reason to change.<br>

Rich Quindry</p>

[gdw]

<p>Bill, your old flash units will work the very same with digital as they did with film.</p>

<p>However, there is a major caveat. Most older flash units work at much, much higher voltages than some digital cameras are designed to handle. Check you camera manual and then test the voltages of the flash units BEFORE you ever attached the old flashes to your camera via either hot shoe or sync cord.</p>

<p>I am not a Canon shooter but I do know you can fry the guts of a Nikon digital if you make that mistake. That is much more expensive and buying newer flash units. So confirm, confirm, confirm first.</p>

<p>If the flash does put out too much voltage, Wein Products puts our an adapter that you can use. (I cannot speak to the realibility or safety of the Wein unit but I have seen it mentioned/recommended in other forums.) Or you can purchase optical slaves for the old units and a newer unit so that the olders units are off camera flash but not physically attached to the camera. This will also require some testing as all optical slaves do not work with all camera/flash combinations. So be sure you have a return option on the slave.</p>

 

[picturesque]

<p>Metz 45 CL-4 is safe with the 5D, and so are the T2s. Since these work with auto thyristor metering, there is no reason you can't use them with digitals. I have a 5D and have used my Metz 45 CL-4 with it, as well as my Jackrabbit and my Dyna 500ws packs and heads. The latter is all manual, of course and would work. 5D sync voltages are up to 250 volts.</p>

<p>What you will find, if shooting with film in the past, is how much all of us old timers using film used to rely on film's latitude for flash exposure. Also, you may find that these flashes can't ramp down as much as might be needed for really high ISO and wide apertures, as is popular today. And some features, like high speed sync and ETTL or iTTL, which are totally integrated into the camera system's exposure system can be useful, although I am not a fan of either, particularly.</p>

<p>I would try your present units first before figuring out if you want to go with the integrated shoemounts.</p>

[nathan_stiles]

<p><quoteblock>In reading thru the forums, seems everyone use small flash like 580 EX,</quoteblock></p>

<p>NO!!! I technically own a hotshoe flash, but I've used it so seldom I've never had to change the batteries. The strobes are expensive, and there are many people on the internet that are interested in photography but can't rationalize the expense of strobes. So, you'll read about speedlights a lot-- and the "strobist" parties are very vocal. I myself use Speedotron, and can't imagine doing work w/ just a speedlight.</p>