5D2 3rd party flash incompatibility discussion

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Archive 2008 · 5D2 3rd party flash incompatibility discussion

tbartick
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p.2 #1 · 5D2 3rd party flash incompatibility discussion

Darn...i bought this a few months ago on amazon...just pulled it out. Does not work on my 5DII however, fine with the 40D?? I have a Canon 580, just thought this would work well because of its small size. I am sad.

Dec 11, 2008 at 03:00 AM

Mike Hatam
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p.2 #2 · 5D2 3rd party flash incompatibility discussion

tbartick wrote:
Darn...i bought this a few months ago on amazon...just pulled it out. Does not work on my 5DII however, fine with the 40D?? I have a Canon 580, just thought this would work well because of its small size. I am sad.

Thanks for your input. You are the first to confirm my issue, so it sounds like I don't have a faulty flash-head, and there is indeed a compatibility problem.

Mike

Dec 11, 2008 at 03:26 AM

Taylor Barrett
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p.2 #3 · 5D2 3rd party flash incompatibility discussion

I dunno, just fool with it. You won't hurt it. Bridge each of the pins and see which one makes it fire off (I know which ones it is looking at the bottom of the flash from my forays into strobism, but I couldn't tell you with words).

Dec 11, 2008 at 04:04 AM

Ian.Dobinson
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p.2 #4 · 5D2 3rd party flash incompatibility discussion

what does the sunpak do that the 220ex cant? They are about the same cost. The OP says he got this flash for the 5d2. why not get the 220ex instead.

And there a couple of comments above saying that canon should have had a built in flash on the 5d2 but just about everyone berates them as useless pieces of cr@p, and that "proper cameras dont have flashes"

For those that have the sunpak maybe talk to sunpak to see if it can be updated as per the sigma issue.

Dec 11, 2008 at 08:10 AM

Ian.Dobinson
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p.2 #5 · 5D2 3rd party flash incompatibility discussion

sorry for the rant above. I just found the sunpak site and see that it has bounce which is quite cool (but is it powerful enough to be of much use?)
so a call to sunpak would be in order to see about an update.

Dec 11, 2008 at 08:18 AM

Mike Hatam
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p.2 #6 · 5D2 3rd party flash incompatibility discussion

Ian.Dobinson wrote:
sorry for the rant above. I just found the sunpak site and see that it has bounce which is quite cool (but is it powerful enough to be of much use?)
so a call to sunpak would be in order to see about an update.

I'll check with Sunpak to see if they know about the issue.

The benefit of the RD2000 is that it's tiny. It folds up to about the size of a card-reader. It's powerful enough for fill-light for portrait shots, and it's powerful enough to trigger other slaves, which makes it a useful "transmitter" from the camera.

Dec 11, 2008 at 03:30 PM

Reg Van Cleave
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p.2 #7 · 5D2 3rd party flash incompatibility discussion

I bought a 3rd party flash for my 20D wouldn't work. Found out that the metal shoe was
not making contact with two of the pins on the camera. Put a piece of paper to lower the
flash to the shoe, worked fine but felt that I shouldn't have to do this each time I wanted flash. Went ahead and replaced it with the 430 and every thing worked fine.
Not saying this is your problem but may want to check to see if the flash is all the way down on the pins in the shoe.

Dec 11, 2008 at 03:39 PM

Mike Hatam
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p.2 #8 · 5D2 3rd party flash incompatibility discussion

Reg Van Cleave wrote:
I bought a 3rd party flash for my 20D wouldn't work. Found out that the metal shoe was
not making contact with two of the pins on the camera. Put a piece of paper to lower the
flash to the shoe, worked fine but felt that I shouldn't have to do this each time I wanted flash. Went ahead and replaced it with the 430 and every thing worked fine.
Not saying this is your problem but may want to check to see if the flash is all the way down on the pins in the shoe.

That's not the problem here. I've checked for this, and also tried using an off-shoe cord.

Dec 11, 2008 at 03:40 PM

brainiac
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p.2 #9 · 5D2 3rd party flash incompatibility discussion

My Sunpak RD2000 works OK with 450D and 1Ds3. It's still not as nice as a $10 Olympus T20 though.

There's no reason why the 5D2 shouldn't have a flash, except marketing to wannabes. You know, the "I'm too pro to avoid spending $300+ on a bulky extra battery-requiring wide-shadow-casting feature-bloated piece of plastic crap with a Canon logo for me to put tape over 'cos my life is like Salvador and I live and die for my art" crowd. The D700 has a very good built-in flash, and it is not a lesser camera for it. It has weather sealing, a great viewfinder, and a TTL system that works. Sorry if I seem a little angry ;-)

A good way to test the shoe is to press a coin against all three or more contacts, although it only takes a second to work out which two contacts need shorting.

Dec 11, 2008 at 04:00 PM

Mike Hatam
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p.2 #10 · 5D2 3rd party flash incompatibility discussion

Any idea on if the Olympus T20 will fire on a 5D2?

Dec 11, 2008 at 05:02 PM

brainiac
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p.2 #11 · 5D2 3rd party flash incompatibility discussion

Mike Hatam wrote:
Any idea on if the Olympus T20 will fire on a 5D2?

Not yet. I'm holding off on that purchase for the moment. Too spendy here in the UK.

Dec 11, 2008 at 05:58 PM

therock
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p.2 #12 · 5D2 3rd party flash incompatibility discussion

I just got one myself and it will flash on my 50D once here and there as I fiddle and wiggle. I have a call and an email into sunpak.

We will see perhaps?

Dec 11, 2008 at 09:47 PM

Mike Hatam
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p.2 #13 · 5D2 3rd party flash incompatibility discussion

I tried pressing a coin against the contacts on the bottom of the flash shoe, and couldn't get the flash to fire. I must have a defective coin!

Seriously - this may mean that I have a defective shoe mount on my RD2000 flash head.

I'd really like to hear from more RD2000 owners on whether or not they can get it to fire on the 5D2.

"therock" - I'll be interested to hear what Sunpak has to say to you about this.

Mike

Dec 11, 2008 at 10:36 PM

acktdi
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p.2 #14 · 5D2 3rd party flash incompatibility discussion

You should contact Sunpak and file a bug report. Their flash is firmware upgradeable and probably just needs new code to operate with the 5dmkii

Dec 11, 2008 at 11:08 PM

Mike Hatam
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p.2 #15 · 5D2 3rd party flash incompatibility discussion

I sent an email to "ToCAD America", who seems to be the North America distributer/supplier for SunPak. I'll report back on what they say.

http://www.sunpak.com/aboutus.html

Dec 12, 2008 at 12:57 AM

tbartick
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p.2 #16 · 5D2 3rd party flash incompatibility discussion

Mike Hatam wrote:
I sent an email to "ToCAD America", who seems to be the North America distributer/supplier for SunPak. I'll report back on what they say.

http://www.sunpak.com/aboutus.html

Please do!!

Dec 12, 2008 at 05:28 AM

skibum5
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p.2 #17 · 5D2 3rd party flash incompatibility discussion

tbartick wrote:
Mike Hatam wrote:
I sent an email to "ToCAD America", who seems to be the North America distributer/supplier for SunPak. I'll report back on what they say.

http://www.sunpak.com/aboutus.html

Please do!!

i'll stop by in peson myself next week, within spitting distance of where I grew up!
literally exactly 1 mile as the crow flies.

Dec 12, 2008 at 06:28 AM

skibum5
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p.2 #18 · 5D2 3rd party flash incompatibility discussion

Ian.Dobinson wrote:
what does the sunpak do that the 220ex cant? They are about the same cost. The OP says he got this flash for the 5d2. why not get the 220ex instead.

And there a couple of comments above saying that canon should have had a built in flash on the 5d2 but just about everyone berates them as useless pieces of cr@p, and that "proper cameras dont have flashes"

For those that have the sunpak maybe talk to sunpak to see if it can be updated as per the sigma issue.

too big.
i rarely use flash and anything larger and no way i will ever have it with me the odd chance when I end up needing a little flash
you can almost pretend this is a pop-up, although not exactly.

Dec 12, 2008 at 06:31 AM

Mike Hatam
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p.2 #19 · 5D2 3rd party flash incompatibility discussion

I received the following response from ToCAD today:
Dear Mike,

The factory is testing the 50D and the 5d MarkII cameras to compatiblity with our flashes. The electronics are different from the other EOS cameras. I hope to hear from them soon with nes of a firmware upgrade.

Thank you,

Sally Wall
Customer Service Supervisor
Tocad America, Inc.
53 Greenpond Road
Rockaway,NJ 07866
973-627-9600 x115
Fax 973-664-2438

Dec 12, 2008 at 10:07 PM

brainiac
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p.2 #20 · 5D2 3rd party flash incompatibility discussion

skibum5 wrote:
too big.
i rarely use flash and anything larger and no way i will ever have it with me the odd chance when I end up needing a little flash
you can almost pretend this is a pop-up, although not exactly.

The killer application of the Sunpak RD2000 is that you can tilt the head downwards to get the bulb even closer to your lens axis, and thereby minimise shadows cast around people's noses, and onto walls behind them. It's not a ring flash, but it's better for shadows than typical DSLR built-ins.

Dec 12, 2008 at 10:23 PM

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