Flash wont work on my Cannon can you help?

[who_dat73]

I am new to Photagraphy actully I am in the very begining stages I have a Canon EOS Rebel T2. I picked up a Opteka FL60AF-c Speed Blitz flash on ebay just to try my hand at flash photo my problem is I put the flash on turn it on the test Ready light comes on and the red focus assist light works but no flash evin in a totaly dark room any idea whats up with this if I push the test button it flashes just fine? I didnt see anything in the manual about settings on the camera and cannon wont help me because the flash isnt from them no responce so far to emails to opteca so maby yall can give me a heads up on whats going on here I hope!!
I am sure I will be back with more questions and after a while I hope to be back with somthing to share but in the meen time thanks for the help.
Mike

 

[Lopaka]

Try placing the camera settings on manual. (Manual focus, manual exposure settings). This stops the camera from trying to think about what's going on and just trip the shutter. If the flash still doesn't flash, then my guess is that the contacts on the camera shoe mount are not lining up with the contacts on the flash shoe.

Bob

 

[Bob F.]

Any flashgun attached to the hotshoe should fire. If your flash has a lead plugged in to it, remove the lead as it may stop the flash from firing.

Also, if that is an "intelligent" flash it may not be set up for the Canon specific hotshoe contacts and that could be causing a problem. Make sure the contacts on the camera line up with the contacts on the flash.


Good luck, Bob.

 

[mawz]

IIRC the T2 is E-TTL only, so a TTL dedicated Canon flash will not work correctly unless it supports E-TTL. A manual flash should work fine. It appears you have a dedicated TTL flash for Canons, so you may be out of luck.

 

[who_dat73]

Ok the contacts line up so we are good there.
Here is a link to the flash that I have maby this will help somone help me ??
Thanks for the responses so far.
http://www.opteka.com/productdetail.asp?productid=4180

 

[Lopaka]

That's a pretty low-priced unit for what it claims to be. Let's just say I have my doubts. First of all, for TTL flash to work on any camera, it requires a camera specific interface. Canon's TTL is proprietary, and I was not aware of any other maker that had a Canon TTL unit or interface adapter. Doesn't mean that there isn't, only that I never saw any. It requires that the camera be able to tell the flash unit when enough light has passed through the lens and to shut off, meaning the camera has to recognize that a compatible flash is attached and ready.

Does the flash unit have a manual mode? If so, try running both the flash and camera on full manual. This bypasses all the fancy electronic wizardry and should trip the flash by tripping the camera. Full manual on both pieces of equipment only requires a small electric current be generated on the main contact point. The additional contact points on the Canon shoe are for the TTL instructions and if those don't line up, the camera cannot talk to the flash and if the flash is looking for TTL instructions it won't flash in TTL mode.

If the flash does not have a manual mode, you may be out of luck. If it does, then it should work in manual mode, but you have to calculate your own exposures. Not so bad, really, since TTL only works really well when shooting conditions fall within certain average parameters.

Good luck,

Bob

 

[John Koehrer]

The description doesn't sound right for a ttl unit. True ttl doesn't care what f stop you've set it just works. The desc. given suggests two auto ranges, one @ f2 & one @ f4. It does say that it will set the synch speed. It sounds like old auto flash by Nikon, Minolta & Olympus.

 

[who_dat73]

the instruction sheet says Auto Focus/TTL flash For:
C-Canon Auto focus SLR Cameras
M-Konica Minolta Auto Focus SLR Cameras
N-Nicon Auto Focas SLR Cameras
P- Pentax Auto Focas SLR Cameras

I thought the Canon was me
I might be up the crick here they have so many rules and regs about returnes there is no way somone can follow all of them and the real fine print in the returne policy says that they wont take returnes on auction items but you have to hunt to find it..
Here is a link to the auction I bought from if that will help
http://cgi.ebay.com/eTTL-AF-Flash-f...QQihZ018QQcategoryZ103414QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Dang I thought I was smarter then to get hooked into somthing like this

 

[reub2000]

As far as I know the Canon cameras should be able to fire any manual flash. Sounds like something is bad with the flash.

Canon's TTL is proprietary, and I was not aware of any other maker that had a Canon TTL unit or interface adapter.

Sigma reverse engineered E-TTL and sells 2 flashes that work with Canon cameras. I'm quite satisfied with my Sigma 500DG ST flash.

 

[Bob F.]

Well, the important part of the description is:

The Opteka FL60AF-C is fully dedicated to ensure that the correct amount of light is provided, when used with Canon film SLR cameras that have TTL metering

which is a little ambiguous: all EOS have TTL metering for ambient lighting but not all have TTL metering for flash. If your EOS does NOT have TTL metering for flash then I would imagine that it will not work as the camera will not be sending the correct signals to the flash unit. Check your camera manual and see if it has TTL flash metering.

If you have to send it back, you can make the point that the advert does not say that it ONLY works with EOS film cameras that have TTL flash metering and as such, the advert is misleading, or at least, has an incomplete description.

They will undoubtedly expect you to pay for postage and at 30 dollars for the unit it is perhaps not worth the effort. I'd try seeing if you can use it in a manual mode.

Good luck, Bob.

 

[who_dat73]

This is classic

He finally responds to my email for help after two weeks and all I get for a responce is

This should fit on the hot shoe on the top of the camera

Now why didnt I think of that in the first place boy am I dumb:rolleyes:

Ebay is working on a dispute so I should be getting my money back soon enuf..