I have the 550ex flash. Just as an experiment, I attached the flash to my point and shoot hotshoet, an Olympus c 7070. To my surprise, the flash works. I'm not sure if all the functions work, but the flash certainly does. Does anyone have any experience of using such a setup? Will there be any damage to the unit? Besides being quite bulky, it does give me an alternative for a flash unit.
Shouldn't be any damage although to be 100% certain I would tape over all the contacts except the center one. That way, the flash will fire but the communication circuits won't be connected to anything.
You can control the flash output when connected to your c7070 by setting the 550 to Manual mode and dialing back the power in 1-stop increments (1/1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, et cetera).
You should be able to tape off all but the center pins and it'll work in full manual.
I'm not sure how the other Canon and Olympus pins match up. But I would block them off just in case contact is being made and damage is being done
jwc127 wrote:
Thank you Shiva and Mike for such prompt replies.
Is there any special tape to use? It seems like the early concensus is to leave the center contact exposed.
I used scotch tape on a 550 once, seemed to work fine. Left a bit of a sticky reside which I removed with some alcohol. I'm not sure that it matters as long as it's thin enough to fit in the space between the flash foot and the shoe.
Unless you're planning on using some sort of metallic tape that is . That would certainly not work.
. That would certainly not work.