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Speedlites Crossover possible? Canon, Fuji, Olympus

No-Frills
Contributor

Hello, has anyone experience with using speedlites for Canon on Fujifilm and Olympus or speedlites for Fujifilm on Canon and Olympus?

We use often a Canon DSLR and as 2nd units a Fujifilm X-T20 or Olympus OM-D and it's not handy to carry two different speedlites.

We don't need the automatic features, we are using speedlites and cameras almost every time in manual mode. The question is, will the speedlites fire? Exist problems with trigger voltage? Canons trigger voltage is clear but I can't find any data for Fuji and Olympus. So I will ask them in the next days.

The speedlites in question are:

Metz Mecablitz 26-2 Af Fujifilm
Metz Mecablitz 44-2 Af Fujifilm

And - believe it or not - the old Canon 199A. It does a good job in manual mode on modern Canons.

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If you want to visit Germany feel free to ask me about good locations for photography in my region (Ruhr district, ex coal mine area, Duesseldorf). And yes, my username is inspired by some sketches of the Carol Burnett Show.
3 REPLIES 3

kvbarkley
VIP
VIP

You might be able to find a third party radio trigger with masters for each camera and a slave for each flash.

Ray-uk
Whiz

Whilst any modern flashgun with centre pin triggering will work in manual mode with a variety of camera makes you may be asking for trouble with what you are trying to do.The trigger voltage is probably the least you have to worry about because any modern flashgun that has multiple pins will have low voltage triggering.

 

Each camera manufacturer has a different layout and different positioning for the data pins (other than the centre pin) which means that the flashgun data pins may be shorted by fitting them into the wrong type of hotshoe, additionally if they do make contact then they may be the wrong polarity (i.e. a positive voltage when it should be negative or vice versa). With either situation you have the possibility of damaging the flashgun or the camera. Just because you hjave the flashgun and camera in manual mode doesn't mean that the other pins are isolated.

Oops, I forget the different positioning of the data pins.

Today I reflected about it and I think I have to change the order of priorities.

Our newly interest in macro photography caused the interest in using the Metz speedlites on Canon, especially the handy 26-2 AF. Besides macro is a corona product. Until the 2nd week of may here in Germany you can't find any restaurant etc. opened and using their WC when you are hours on the move. All events are cancelled. We usually shoot vintage cars, tractor events and something like that.

In 2 months of corona crisis the best thing to do was look out in parks for the usual German city "wildlife" that is restricted to Canada Geese, Black Coots, Leaf Bugs, Ladybugs and Blue **bleep**. And for the first time in my life - after 47 years of photography - I encountered that small bugs can be very interesting and skills challenging.

We have the best macro results with our Canon DSLRs. AF is precise, Fuji Af fails often. That is important because my eysight isn't the best for manual focus. The mirrorless Fujis are even worse on flowers, bigger than bugs. I miss in Fuji shots details Canon can easy reproduce. The Olympus is more the camera we carry on shopping days, it fits in every pocket, the 40-150mm in another. Unfortunately Canon mirrorless cams are crippled to much and we are waiting for better ideas of the Canon staff. But on a long term we prefere the entire swap to Canon. The 90D and the new 1 Dx raise expections that Canon can and will do better in the future. The other way around Fuji is doing not better. The new X-T4 has good video features but it's price point isn't so far away from full-frame.

I think we will get a ring speedlite espacially for Canon and a 2nd one that fits all 3 brands. Meike produces a cheap one.

@kvbarkley:

The Fuji versions of the Metz 26-2 AF and 44-2 AF can't be triggered by radio control, they even didn't work with our optical trigger. The Canon and Nikon versions of the same Metz models work that way so far as I know.

Besides, in my opinion Metz will loose more and more market shares. In analogue times Metz was great, today Godox and others can do all better. The only reason to buy the two Metz was a trade-in: the dealer got some of our very old and today useless digital cams and we got the two imperfect speedlites.

 

 

__________

If you want to visit Germany feel free to ask me about good locations for photography in my region (Ruhr district, ex coal mine area, Duesseldorf). And yes, my username is inspired by some sketches of the Carol Burnett Show.
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