HELP -Cannon Hotshoe Adaptor

[William Glen]

Ive got a set of Courtney 1150 studio flashes and I have a Cannon 350D. My old Hotshoe adaptor doesnt work! Can anyone tell me what hotshoe adaptor I need or a link to someone who sells them?

[flake]

You need a Wein safe sync unless you are very very sure than the trigger voltage of the flash heads is below 6V. Alternatively you could always use an infra red wireless trigger, but again what ever you use to receive has to be able to handle the trigger voltage.

Be very careful of the cheap hotshoe - PC socket adaptors on Ebay as they are a straight through connection and too much voltage will damage the flash board in the camera. With extreme voltages it's possible to destroy the camera completely.

[anglefire]

Sorry Flake, you are wrong. The 350D and most (All?) DSLR's in the canon range since 2004 (?) can accept a trigger voltage upto 240V.

Chuck Westfall, Director/Media & Customer Relationship, Canon USA, advises as follows regarding the flash sync circuit of the EOS Digital Rebel XT (EOS 350D):

*****
The EOS Digital Rebel XT uses a modified version of the EOS 20D's shutter unit. Consequently, acceptable trigger circuit voltage for both cameras is the same, i.e., 250 volts. Except for the original Digital Rebel, all current EOS digital SLRs (i.e., EOS-1Ds Mark II, EOS-1D Mark II, EOS 20D and EOS Digital Rebel XT) generate their X-sync signals electronically rather than mechanically. This is why they have higher acceptable trigger circuit voltage ratings than earlier models like the D30, D60, 10D and original Digital Rebel. These older models cannot be modified to achieve a higher trigger circuit voltage rating, since such a modification would require a different shutter mechanism as well as a complete redesign of the supporting circuitry.
*****

[flake]

Yes you are probably right, I was under the impression that the cameras with a PC socket built in had a higher voltage tolerance, however I'd want to be absolutely certain that the voltage was safe before I hooked something up to my camera!