Can you use different brands of external flash on a specific camera brand?

[Yahoozy]

for instance, a Canon flash on a Nikon or something similar

i have a Pentax and the Pentax flashes that ive found are a bit too pricey for my range, which is slightly sad, but flashes for other brands are more affordable

any thoughts would be appreciated =P

 

[OKCMike]

As far as I know you can not put a camera manufacturer's(Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Sony, ext.) flash on another camera. But there are several third party vendors that make TTL compatilble flashes for all makes. Sunpak, Vivitar, Metz, ect. Try going to the B&H site and browseing for flashes for the Pentax cameras. They should have several models.

 

[Yahoozy]

thanks dude =P

 

[JIP]

There are 2 types of non-Pentax flashes that can be used on your Pentax camera. The first flash is a non-dedicated manual flash, if you look on the bottom of a non-dedicated flash you will see one metal pin used for sensing the signal from your camera to fire your flash. There will be many types of these flashes out there with a very wide range of qualities some will be "automatic manual" (my term" meaning they have a sensor in them that will sense how the closest and brightest object to the flash and shut it off when the light bounces back into the flash, with a flash like this you may also have control over the power with an aperture slider. On the other side of this will be the just a pulse flash that has no control. One cavaeat with flashes like these is, some may have a voltage compatibilitiy issue with your camera, you will need to make sure the flash is o.k. to be used with your camera I know a chart is readily available for Canon I have seen it on the forum but I am not sure about Pentax. The other type of flash you can buy is a non Pentax brand Pentax dedicated flash these are available at places like Ritz/Wolf camera and others and will be generally significantly less than your Pentax flash there are also brands like Metz who make flashes dedicated for your camer but something like that might be as much if not more than your typical Pentax flash. Anyway that is my long-winded advice on flashes just make sure you stay away from any flash that has multiple pins on the bottom that do not match the ones on the hot-shoe of your camera.

 

[Yahoozy]

thanks for that

ill keep my eye out for those =P

 

[table1349]

for instance, a Canon flash on a Nikon or something similar

i have a Pentax and the Pentax flashes that ive found are a bit too pricey for my range, which is slightly sad, but flashes for other brands are more affordable

any thoughts would be appreciated =P

Actually, the answer to your question is YES and NO. No you can't put say a Nikon SB600 on a Canon body and expect it to work in some form of automatic mode. Yes you can take the same flash, set it in the manual mode and use it. Why someone would, I don't know, but from a purely technical standpoint it can be done.

My suggestion for finding a flash for your pentax would be to look at Sigma, Metz or Sunpak. They all make some good stuff that is dedicated for specific systems such as Pentax, Canon, Nikon etc. and they tend to be a bit cheaper.

 

[Yahoozy]

hmm... could you use a flash cable (wired or wireless) to connect it without goin through the hot shoe?

 

[table1349]

hmm... could you use a flash cable (wired or wireless) to connect it without goin through the hot shoe?

Depends on the flash how easy it would be to do. Really need more information on the flash make model, how you want to use it, on a stand, flash bracket etc.

 

[Yahoozy]

really i dont know at this point

with my new DSLR im starting off fresh so i need new filters, flashes, etc so im still in the planning stage