Another off camera flash question

[silversnapper1]

Hi all,

Just wondered if you could help me with a quick question.

I have been given a Cobra D400 Dedicated flash for a Minolta camera. I was just wondering if I would be safe using it with a wireless trigger from my Nikon D90.

Any help or pointers appreciated.

[pburness]

Provided it's not physically connected to the camera then I don't see why not.

I actually purchased (for the grand price of £2.75) a very small flash slave unit which is great. I set the slave flash on manual (an old Sunpack - which you can pick up fairly cheaply on e-bay or in a second hand shop), adjust it's power, move it where I want it. I set my on-camera flash to minimum power (easy on the D90), set flash to commander mode, and my SB-600 to wireless and position that where I want it and then flash away!

Cheap and cheerful - but works
Phil

[silversnapper1]

Thanks for your input Phil. I thinks that I am more worried about the trigger voltage and if the flash might fry my flash trigger.

[pburness]

Originally Posted by silversnapper1

Thanks for your input Phil. I thinks that I am more worried about the trigger voltage and if the flash might fry my flash trigger.

I can see the dilema, can you contact the trigger manufacturer to see if the flashgun is supported? Alternatively you could google flashgun make and model with trigger make and model and see what comes out....

Phil

[silversnapper1]

Thanks Phil. I have been searching around on the interweb but don't seem to be able to nail the right search criteria. You have given me some more thoughts though.

[MattUK]

I don't believe the hotshoe connectors can power things (other than enough power to make switches), and therefore shouldn't have enough voltage going through them to fry anything?

[silversnapper1]

Ok, Thanks Matt. I have spent hours looking into this and have found a forum where someone asked a similar question and 2 people responded with trigger voltages of 4.2 and 4.9 so, hopefully, it should be ok.

[chris-p]

You're unlikely to fry a flash trigger anyway, it's normally the more sensitive electrronics that are affected in the camera anyway.

As a rule of thumb, any flash that dates from this century will be safe to use on camera as well, the old huge trigger voltages something you only find on much older flashes. Always worth checking with a third party model though.

[silversnapper1]

Thanks Chris. It is actually a very old flash as it belonged to my Father who passed away in 1999. I've just come back in from my next door neighbour's. I found a site yesterday that told how to measure the trigger voltage with a multimeter. Seemed to be triggering at about 7v which is well below the 12v recommended by my triggers.