Flash for Crippled Canons?

[Quiet]

Would anyone have concrete knowledge of whether Canon's or anyone else's flash will operate on the "cold shoe" of the Rebel T7 or its similarly denuded siblings like the SL3?

Canon removed the larger X-sync contact from the shoe thus severely limiting the third party flashes that can work with it. I've asked in many other forums and get a lot of definite maybees. The Canon rep where I bought it assures me even the baby Speedlight EL-100 will operate with it, and the interwebs inform me that 3rd party outfits like Godox have updated the firmware in their flashes to do so.

But I'd sure like to hear from someone who owns one of the affected cameras and has found a flash that absolutely works.

[Waddizzle]

Canon does not design their gear to be compatible with 3rd party hardware.  It is of no concern to them.

[Quiet]

More than casual incompatibility, they've actively ensured that these particular camera models are incompatible with every third party flash unit made since the 1930s.

[ebiggs1]

And that is their right. If I had a company I would not engineer any of my gadgets to work with off brand hardware and neither would you. Besides some off brand flashes can damage a Canon camera.

[Quiet]

Every SLR with a hot shoe made prior to these denuded Rebels/1500s has had an X-sync contact in its hot shoe. One therefore reasnoably expects that given its 50+ years of consistency. Had I not bought this under plandemic rules I'd have immediately noticed it during hands-on fiddling in the store.

[Ray-uk]

Some Sigma flashguns work without using the centre pin, I had what I think was a Sigma EF-500 DG flash a few years ago and although it had a centre pin it wasn't used. I sold it because I couldn't use it with a remote trigger although it worked fine in the hotshoe..

[Quiet]

Thanks, Ray-uk. I'm just going to keep using my old Vivitar 5600 with the bare bulb head as a slave for the T7's little onboard flash. If I stay in manual focus mode there are no annoying pre-flashes to worry about and I can just pop enough fill flash while the bare bulb bounces all over everywhere.  😄 

[kenwah52]

That's ok for your comment.  I'm glad you aren't a CEO of any company.  But if you are going to remove the 5th pin on your camera, make it public.  And also, don't add a flash in your T7 bundle as that doen't work either.  I've spent many hours trying to resolve this issue, but Canon has a person by the short hairs on this one.  They have lost a customer on this end.  Hope you enjoy your fantasy company that makes exclusive products for exclusive equiptment.  I am waiting to hear from my complaint filed to the BBB, but in this current political climate, I may as well scrawled my message on a pine tree.

[kvbarkley]

What bundle? What flash? Are you sure it isn't a third party one? All Canon flashes use ETTL not using the center pin.

[ebiggs1]

" I am waiting to hear from my complaint filed to the BBB,..."

I, also, am interested in knowing whether the BBB cares if Canon doesn't make sure its cameras work with all other brands of flashes.  You might try that "pine tree" for some sympathy!