Canon Speedlite 199A Off-Camera

[natek313]

I have an old Canon Speedlite 199A flash unit, and I am trying to use it off-camera. I tried firing it with my CyberSync receiver like I do with my 430EX II, but for some strange reason, it doesn't fire. The flash has three pins on the hotshoe, and I'm not sure if the firing pins (configuration or something else) is preventing it from firing when triggered with the CyberSync CST.

Do any of you know how I could fire this flash?

I'm using a Canon XS with the CyberSync CST on-camera, if that matters.

If it's helpful, here is a picture.

[zona5101]

Just the center pin is used to trigger the flash the other pins are for auto modes. There is also a contact in the shoe that I believe is used to complete the circuit. IIRC, the flash triggers when these two contacts are closed.

[natek313]

That's what I figured after looking at the pins on the 430EX II and 199A. It looks like they both contact the PC to hotshoe flash adapter in the same way, but the 199A won't fire when I press the "Test" button on the CST.

I'm just not sure if I'm missing something or if I need another piece of equipment of if something in the flash unit is bad.

[inkista]

Does the 199A have a PC sync port? Maybe try hooking up the Cybersync receiver to that.
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Addendum. Shoot. Looks like a proprietary sync port. Found the manual.

[natek313]

Ugh! Thanks for your research, inkista. That manual is a time warp. Haha!

What is really strange, though, is that this person has the 199A attached to his Rebel T1i. Granted, it's a wired connection. I wonder if I just can't fire the 199A wirelessly. I don't have my camera on-hand, but I don't believe the XS has a PC terminal on the camera. So, that means even if I did get a hotshoe-to-PC adapter for the camera, I wouldn't be able to use the CyberSync CST.

Sigh. Oh well.

[inkista]

Well, I was thinking more about something like this, which could connect the 199A's sync port to your Cybersync receiver. But this is assuming that your hotshoe just isn't working and that the sync port is. If the flash itself is fried, this wouldn't help.

Does the flash test fire ok?

[natek313]

I totally forgot about Flash Zebra.

The flash test fires and recharges without any problems it seems. I'm not so sure the hotshoe is bad, though, since I've used the flash on-camera on my XS before getting the 430EX II.

I don't know. This is strange. I suppose I could buy that cord from Flash Zebra to try it out. The worst thing that could happen is that it still doesn't work, and I would have to return it.

[inkista]

Yeah, I agree--if it fires on the camera hotshoe correctly, the flash's hotshoe and the firing pin are working, so it's odd that using the cybersync receiver on the hotshoe isn't. Don't think the Flash Zebra cord would make much difference.
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Addendum: Ok, did a little spelunking on the Flickr Strobist discussions, and it seems that those who are using the 199A are doing so through PC sync cords. There's apparently some kind of circuit lockup issue that happens to a lot of folks where the flash will fire once fine, but it won't fire again until it's been reset/power cycled.

Hmmm. Maybe the PC cord would make a difference.

[natek313]

Thanks so much for your time and research, inkista; it's much appreciated.

Obviously, I'm not going to invest in a PC cord just to fire a flash at the expense of my other flash(es). Ah well. I thought for a second I had a free strobe; guess not.

Thanks again!