Canon 7D and Sunpak pf30x e-ttl II flash issue

[will_wycherley]

<p>I just finally picked up my new Cannon 7D and placed my old cheap sunpak pf 30x flash onto the hot shoe, then tried taking some pictures of the kids.. flash did not fire, its charged and fires manually, but not with the camera,. so wondering if anyone knows if there are issues and the 7D only works with a few dedicated flash units. this is now my understanding .. but I seem to be finding it difficult to have the question answered by searching the forums<br>

I am also wondering if this sunpak would work with a wireless transmitter.. or not?<br>

any thoughts or ideas would be greately appreciated.<br>

thanks</p>

 

[jaydesi]

<p>Be sure to check the operating voltage of old flashes; some of them are quite high and can burn out newer cameras. The 7D should fire any flash that is compatible with the EOS line of cameras.</p>

[PuppyDigs]

<p>Do you have the Canon EOS version of the sunpak pf 30x (EAN (maker code 4960436 CA-e㈼ for Canon). The 7D is not compatible with the Nikon or Sony versions of the flash.</p>

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[robatkinson]

<blockquote>

<p>The <em>Nissin Di-466, Nissin Di-622</em> (Canon version, and Nikon version produced before February 2010), <em><strong>Sunpak PF30X</strong>, Sunpak PZ42x,</em> and <em>Sigma EF-500/530/610 DG ST</em> (Canon version) will not trigger when placed in a plain (two-contact) hot shoe as used by plain optical and radio triggers, and pc-to-hot shoe adaptors. These dedicated flashes need to have a signal on the additional (system-specific) pins found on dedicated flash units to trigger.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>The above is from dpanswers.com and would seem to indicate that you cannot you it with a wireless transmitter..</p>

<p>From what I can tell the flash was reverse engineered to communicate with older canon camera models and when canon made the 7d they changed something in the camera-flash comms protocol such that this flash cannot communicate with the camera. You could put it on a cold shoe and trigger it as a slave from the 7D's pop-up flash if [your flash] has that capability?</p>

[PuppyDigs]

<blockquote>

<p>You could put it on a cold shoe and trigger it as a slave from the 7D's pop-up flash if [your flash] has that capability?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>The E-TTL metering preflash makes many manual triggers flash too early. A few triggers have a delay (ignore the preflash) so those are the ones to buy.</p>

[will_wycherley]

<p>thanks for the tips and very quick responses.. .. seems that the firmware is not updateable and as such the flash does not work with the 7D.. all good to know.<br>

I believe it would still work if manually triggered.. Ill still use it for some painting though..</p>

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