Elsewhere on this forum I've read that to disable E-TTL on my ElanIIe in order to use slaved flashes (that are otherwise set off by E-TTL's preflash) a hot-shoe adapter can be used.

Having been quoted $120.00 Canadian (add 40% for US funds!) for the Canon TTL Hot Shoe Adapter 3, I'm considering a third party adapter.

Though I have read on the forum that this can be done, I have two questions:

1) Is there any danger to my Elan's or 380EX's circuitry in using a non-Canon hot shoe adapter? and

2) Can an old adapter be used? For example, I priced a used one--the information on the box said it was suitable for the (venerable) Canon AE-1 among other models. Will an adapter of this vintage work safely?

Being principal working tools, I don't want to put the Elan or Speedlite at risk.

Thank you!

-- Roy Kekewich (roykekewich@yahoo.com), October 06, 2000

Answers

Generic hot shoe adapters not only disable E-TTL but TTL as well. Since your 380EX does not have built in "auto flash" metering or any manual control, you will end up with full power flash only. This certainly wont damage your flash or camera, but you wont get any flash exposure metering. If all you are doing is using the 380EX to opticaly trigger the other flash units this will probably work but you'll either need to deflect the light from the 380EX so it doesn't mess up your other flash's exposure or include it into the calculation.

-- Jim Strutz (j.strutz@gci.net), October 06, 2000.

Thanks, Jim, for the above answer. I use the Elan's built-in flash, instead of the 380EX, to trigger optical slaves. I'm also currently testing it as fill light, as per your suggestion in an earlier posting, using flash compensation.

Are there ANY types of adapters or procedures that can short out the camera's circuits? Regarding procedures,I've read, on the forum, that you can tape over the four contacts on the hot shoe, leaving just one exposed, to trigger the 380EX at full power, but the advice said "carefully" tape... What is the inherent danger in doing this? Thank you.

-- Roy Kekewich (roykekewich@yahoo.com), October 07, 2000.

PS My goal in using an adapter was to disable the ETTL preflash and use the 380EX in TTL as a fill light and optical slave trigger. Since the Canon adapter would provide this, but is expensive, I was looking for a third party substitute. Does anyone know if there is such an adapter on the market?

-- Roy Kekewich (roykekewich@yahoo.com), October 07, 2000.

>Are there ANY types of adapters or procedures that can short out the camera's circuits? Yep. Eeverything but the Wein Safe-Sync or the Nikon AS-15 hot shoe adapter will short out any EOS camera. Better watch out. >Regarding procedures,I've read, on the forum, that you can tape over the four contacts on the hot shoe, leaving just one exposed, to trigger the 380EX at full power, but the advice said "carefully" tape... What is the inherent danger in doing this? No danger, just be careful not to tape over the center pin. Doing this is essentially the same as using a Wein or Nikon hot shoe adapter product. Except you are throwing light into the mix. The center pin is the trigger for the light. The other four control E-TTL and various communication between flash and camera.

The NIkon AS-15 is a bit less expensive than The Wein model.

-- Colin Miller (ckmiller@pond.net), October 07, 2000.

BAD ADVICE ALERT!!! Watch out!

The Canon Hot Shoe Adapter 3 has electronics (and a battery to power them) in it that shuts down the E-TTL metering but leaves the flash in TTL mode. It's primary purpose is to attach remote cords to do off camera TTL flash and multi off camera TTL flash. You can get them on eBay for about $45 all the time.

The Wein Safe Sync also has electronics in it that reduces the trigger voltage to 6V. This will keep your camera's electronics from frying from high sync voltages. It also completely disables E-TTL and TTL metering. With any E, EX or EZ Speedlite and most off brand dedicated units, you get no metering at all. Just full power flash or manual control on the flashes that allow it.

The Nikon AS-15 has no electronics in it at all. It's just a good quality generic hot shoe adapter. It does nothing more than the cheap ones except last longer and opperate more reliably. If you use it on a Canon body to attach a flash with a high trigger voltage, you can fry your camera.

Other hot shoe adapters can be used safely as well, providing the flash's sync voltage is 6V or less. Although everybody I've heard that's tried it says up to 12V is ok too.

You don't need to tape the other pins unless you have a flash or adapter that contacts the other pins. I've never seen one that does, but there probably is exceptions. This is why you can use generic "auto flashes" like the Vivitar 283 and other one pin flash units safely as long as the trigger voltage isn't too high

-- Jim Strutz (jimstrutz@juno.com), October 08, 2000.

Thanks for the responses.

If I've got this right, and please correct me if I don't:

1. If I want to trigger my 380EX at full power, then it's safe to tape over the four outside contacts, leaving just the center one exposed (to trigger the flash), or use an old adapter that has only the center contact. True?

2. If I want to disable the 380EX'x preflash and maintain TTL, then ONLY (?) the Canon adapter can be used? (In this case I would be using the 380EX as a slave flash trigger and/or trigger and fill light-- instead of using the Elan's built-in flash as I've been doing.)

-- Roy Kekewich (roykekewich@yahoo.com), October 08, 2000.

Yes & Yes

-- Jim Strutz (jimstrutz@juno.com), October 08, 2000.

Having been quoted $120.00 Canadian (add 40% for US funds!) for the Canon TTL Hot Shoe Adapter 3, I'm considering a third party adapter.

The Canon TTL Hot Shoe Adapter "2" is electrically identical to the "3" and widely avalable used for under $40 (US).

-- Dave Herzstein (dherzstein@juno.com), October 09, 2000.

Thanks to all for your responses. I'll keep in mind the potential dangers as I try my 380EX in different ways.

-- Roy Kekewich (roykekewich@yahoo.com), October 09, 2000.