Just picked up a Sunpak 422D flash for Nikon in the course of my older camera collecting. I'd like to use it with my Nikon D90. I've heard that the voltage differences may fry the D90. Anyone know the answer to this?

if you want a definitive answer toddle down to the local electronics shop and pick up a basic volt meter. Turn on the flash and let it charge ready for a paf

now, turn on your volt meter, put it to measure DC and put one probe on the center pin and the other on the bit that rubs against the hot shoe edge as it goes onto the shoe

if its more than 12 V its dicey ... 24V is around, but the common value for safe units is 12v

without performing this, I'd venture yes, as its a thyristor flash that's a little more modern.

personally I only use Metz and I know they publish which ones are safe and which are not.

see if sunpak have any data ... but a meter should cost you about $5 ... and they're handy to have around the house too

if you want a definitive answer toddle down to the local electronics shop and pick up a basic volt meter. Turn on the flash and let it charge ready for a paf

now, turn on your volt meter, put it to measure DC and put one probe on the center pin and the other on the bit that rubs against the hot shoe edge as it goes onto the shoe

if its more than 12 V its dicey ... 24V is around, but the common value for safe units is 12v

without performing this, I'd venture yes, as its a thyristor flash that's a little more modern.

personally I only use Metz and I know they publish which ones are safe and which are not.

see if sunpak have any data ... but a meter should cost you about $5 ... and they're handy to have around the house too

Use the voltages that are specified by the camera manufacturer as being safe not the flash manufacterer. Other wise Chris's post is correct.

Also sont forget that Wein makes a safe flash attachement that allows many legacy flashes with high trigger voltages functional with modern DSLRs with low voltage tolerances.

Some modern DSLRs can handle high flash trigger voltages, but look before you leap to be on the safe side.

Don

Something to note. That flash has an adapter module to mate the auto features of the host camera. If you baught it with the nikon version, it will not work with your D90. The D90 uses a newer communication protocol. If it is a "standard shoe", you are good to go.

edit: Other than the D100, all Nikon digitals use a differen (new) flash protocol. This is an important point to note when shopping for used flash gear. The new nikon flashes will do all their cameras. Sometimes you don't really save.

I have used a flash with a 180v sync (vivtar 283) many times on my Nikon D40.
It should say in your manual how many volts it will take.
My d40 is supposed to take up to 250v sync.

Here is a page with strobe sync voltages.
http://www.botzilla.com/photo/strobeVolts.html

I have used a flash with a 180v sync (vivtar 283) many times on my Nikon D40.
It should say in your manual how many volts it will take.
My d40 is supposed to take up to 250v sync.


I was going to add this bit but deleted it, I'll add it now.

Many SLR cameras use switches which are physically part of the shutter blades to do the switching. The higher the amperage the more the pitting that will occur to the surface of the switch (they are just two pieces of metal usually copper. Pick up any old circuit board to get an idea of how thin this may be). With any switch there is some "sparking" occur as the two metal parts come into contact. The higher the voltage the more likely and the higher the amperage the deeper the pitting (think mini-arc welder)

Older flashes essentially use the PC connector to complete the circuit and discharge a capacitor through the (often Xenon) strobe. This will result in high voltages and (importantly) high amperages. This will eventually pit the surface of the switch making it inoperable. While many camera shutters and internal circuits will cope with this it will (if done hundreds or thousands of times) eventually render the switch section non functional. It will begin by being erratic in operation often enough.

That said, some cameras have a solid state switch (transistor) which I understood that was what the D40 uses. These do not suffer the same physical switching arcing damage (but have their own issues), so are a much safer operation choice when switching stuff like this.

Lots of the new cameras (most of which have PC sockets) are quite tolerant to voltages up to 250

what I do however is to use a wireless strobe trigger (which I bought form eBay) on the base of the flash, and put the trigger unit on the flash ... I seldom want on camera flash anyway ... but YMMV