Old flashgun

Tootz

Tootz

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Sophie
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Hi all,

I'm taking my Canon 1000d away on holiday with me in a few weeks, I'm going to a wedding so want to get some good pics in low light. I really would like a flashgun but cant really afford to buy a decent one at the moment. A friend of mine said I can have his old 277t speedlite - but it looks pretty old! Will it work with my camera, and will the outcome of the picture be any good??

Thanks
 
,DO NOT PUT THAT FLASH ON A DIGITAL CAMERA.
Sorry to shout but I need to know you see the message.
Old flash guns made for older film cameras will stuff too high a voltage into the camera when trying to communicate and there is a genuine risk of it frying the camera.
Besides that, you will get no control over output making it very tricky to use at best, impossible at worst.
Look for a flash with ex at the end of the model number.
 
There is a site here that shows trigger voltages for "legacy" flash units and lists the 277T at 4.8 Volts.

I don't think the unit offers manual control but it has "auto thyristor" where you match iso & aperture settings on camera & flash and it cuts the output when enough reflected light is detected by the flash sensor.

I've got an old SB24 nikon flash which worked fine with my D700 digital SLR and the "auto thyristor" setting seemed to work OK although I only really used it in "manual" mode.
 
I use an old Vivitar flash with my D40 - it has a thyristor control and it gives me a synch speed up to 1/4000sec :)
 
Suvv said:
I use an old Vivitar flash with my D40 - it has a thyristor control and it gives me a synch speed up to 1/4000sec :)
Click to expand...

Be careful with old Vivitars, whilst the D40 will handle 240v through the hotshoe some of their flashes can be 300+.......
 
boliston said:
There is a site here that shows trigger voltages for "legacy" flash units and lists the 277T at 4.8 Volts.

I don't think the unit offers manual control but it has "auto thyristor" where you match iso & aperture settings on camera & flash and it cuts the output when enough reflected light is detected by the flash sensor.

I've got an old SB24 nikon flash which worked fine with my D700 digital SLR and the "auto thyristor" setting seemed to work OK although I only really used it in "manual" mode.
Click to expand...
Cool, it should be safe then, but with old electronics you can never be totally confident. Personally I'd be looking for a second hand 420EX or better, life is much easier if you have ETTL...
 
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