What Type Of Flash Unit

M

madras_seersucker

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Jan 11, 2014
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Hi All
Looking at getting a new flash for my Canonets and Hi-Matic 7. Both are non hot shoe (cold shoe?) so not sure what new flash units would work for these cameras. Can anyone here give me some pointers what to look out for please?
 
I use, with a cold shoe to hot shoe converter, both a Vivitar 2600-2800, and a Minolta 320x. Be sure to get a converter that has a tightening feature as some of the cheap converters will be loose in the camera cold shoe.

Both of these flash units are cheap on Ebay, the Vivitar is for fill outdoors and auto indoors, and the Minolta is a much more powerful flash that will allow and any type of flash work. But the Minolta is much bigger and heavier.
 
Vivitar would be my recommendation. However, given that your cameras don't have a hot shoe, you'd have to be careful at shopping and probably budget for a PC cable to connect the flash to the camera.
 
Thanks- But I cant seem to find any cold shoe to hot shoe converters online, can you point me at one you're talking about? All I'm getting are ones for converting Sony to Nikon rather than what I'm looking for.
 
If you don't mind a bit of bulk, hunt down a Stitz deluxe flash grip - it offers a hot shoe once you connect it to your camera with a male-to-male PC sync cord. You might also consider one of the myriad of hammerhead flash guns on eBay - most will come with a PC connector and offer tilt-and-swivel operation as well as automatic operation.
 
Well $100.00 USD to ship a $10.00 adaptor to NZ, wont be using that supplier!! Luckily I've found one locally for under $20.00 NZD. Thanks for the help people :)
 
Hi,

Not sure where you live and not sure if you mean a brand new flash or just a new to you one.

Point being that no one wants old flashes in this digital age and so there are dozens of them in the UK being sold (or rather, not sold on ebay) for pennies. Same goes for flea markets and charity shops.

So why not just buy an old, second-hand automatic flash with a 3mm coaxial plug on it and use it? The one or two batteries (AA's or AAA's) will probably cost more than the flash.

Most old flashes work, imo, and just need the condensers reformed by leaving them switched on for (say) half an hour and then firing them off with the test button.

Vivitars are the ones to go for imo but check the 3mm flash lead is with it. OTOH there's dozens out there...

Regards, David
 
Second hand is fine (I'm trying to keep this hobby to a strict budget here) :bang: I found a NOS adaptor on our local auction site and bought that then the seller offered me another flash for NZD $3.00 as well, so just waiting on Mr. Postman now :)
 
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