[Help] Nikon D40 --> Old flashes

.Longshanks.

People - looking for some advice here.

I have a mate who has inherited some flash units from his old man but they are really old school and he's not entirely sure how to get them to 'talk' to his Nikon D40. At the moment he's using them manually (long dark exposures and the trigger by hand and totally guessing power setting etc).

Because the flashes are so old, he can't mount them to the camera as the power ratings might fry the D40. Are there any ttl cords or triggers that can be used to fire the flash the same time he presses the shutter button?

Pics of units;

4sb

Hi,

I bought a set of Cactus Wireless triggers from Gadget Infinity. You need the V2 receiver for high voltage triggers - 12v to 200v. The V2s is for flash units with lower voltage trigger levels.

Of course, you will not have any ttl coupling between camera and flash. You can possibly use the flash's own auto exposure setting.

I moved away from using my old flash units because they had very little manual power settings, and they took a long time to recycle.

DaireQuinlan

Here's a page I've used before with lists of flash trigger voltages for various makes and models of flashes.

http://www.botzilla.com/photo/strobeVolts.html

Your specific models don't seem to be there, but none of their jessops flashes listed seem safe, so I wouldn't be tempted to attach either of the ones you have to the camera.

AFAIK safe trigger voltage is anything from 0->250 ? But I'd definitely confirm that, don't take my word for it

Chorcai

Do you know anyone good with electronic gear ?

If he has a flash for the D40 already, he could make up a PCB with a trigger for when the flash on the D40 fires to set off the other flashs? There was a thread I think here about making a sound trigger or was it somewhere else.. goes diggin...

digged up these

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055615966&highlight=sound+trigger

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055737416&highlight=sound+trigger

smelltheglove

If you confirm that the voltage is ok then you may be able to use an adapter hto shoe. The other thing to consider is a flash cable. I have a couple of these I think which came with my wireless, a hotshoe with a cable you plug into the camera, I dont know if they are any use, I never used them, as I said they just came along with the triggers, mind the wireless triggers only cost me around €50 for a trigger and 3 receivers so that might be the safest bet, ebay all the way!

.Longshanks.

Thanks for all the advice people. I'll pass it all one!