(I'm not a beginner to photography, but I'm certainly a beginner to Canon!) If I put one of my (fairly modern) Pentax flashguns on my R or R5, will it damage the camera? I don't normally use on-camera flash, but it may be useful occasionally, at least in manual mode. I've read somewhat-dated statements, outside this forum, that it is unwise, in case the voltage of the Pentax flashguns is too high. But I can't find what these voltages are. The Pentax flashguns concerned are: AF201FG (the little one); AF540FGZ II (the big one); AF160FC (macro ring flash). (I assume that using a Calumet ProSeries 4-channel transmitter on the camera is safe?)
I don't think its a good idea, each brand has connections in the hot shoe and i believe they run different voltages, so you are safest staying wih something intended for you camera brand. Your triggers should be made for what every brand you are using, I assume you have canon mount triggers? You can get optical slaves however and trigger them remotely. So picking up some old optical slaves like a Nikon sb600 / sb800 can be put in a cold shoe an triggered by another flash regardless of brand.
Thanks! I've discovered that there are voltage-protection units that fit into the camera's hot shoe and have their own hot-shoe on top.They ensure that no more than 3 volts is seen by the camera, whatever the voltage of the flash gun. They also appear to use only one contact? Here is an example I've ordered one; I think it will do what I want if I ever want on-camera flash. My (4-channel) Calumet ProSeries transmitters are claimed to be suitable for Canon cameras. Although I've been using them for years on Pentax cameras! They are the most likely way I'll be using multiple off-camera flash guns. Perhaps for safety I should use them on top of a voltage-protection units? This is "work in progress"! I'm proceeding cautiously. (And just in case, I'll try all this on my R first rather than my R5). Whatever happens, I'll report back here so that there is a record that others may find useful.
