[ausastronomer (John Bambury)]

Hi all,

Well I took the plunge and crossed to the dark side and purchased my 1st Digital camera, a canon 400D. This replaces my Canon EOS 50 film camera.

Prior to purchasing the camera I was told by a guy at John Ralphs Camera House at Erina, that my existing external flash unit would work fine on the 400D. I actually took the flash into the store and showed him.

The flash unit I have is a Sakar 636 for Canon AF/EOS. The flash fits on the camera fine and all the pins line up properly. However, it doesn't seem to work properly. Firstly, the camera doesn't appear to know its attached and accordingly tries to determine its settings to work in low light conditions, as if no flash was connected. Secondly, when I fire the shutter the flash fires but only gives a really dim short flash burst, certainly not enough flash to properly illuminate the subject. On reading the instructions, I don't know that this flash does work with this camera. It tells me I need an EX compatible flash. Can anyone shed more light on this.

Are there some settings I need to change, or something I need to do, to make this flash work on the camera? Or, have I suspected correctly and am I about to spend another $400+ on a decent flash unit?

John B