Monday, October 3, 2011

Can I trigger an optar 152M manually?

Question

First off, I know nothing about flashes.

I have an optar 152M flash that fits on top of the camera, and I want to trigger it manually.

The flash seems to have a contact where it fits onto the camera (or is that just to locate it?), and two contacts coming out as a cable.

Is it as simple as shorting the contacts together?

[EDIT] Thanks for the answers. I just had a look inside the flash, and it looks like it was stored in a pond at some point. It's now in the bin!

Answer

Yes, it is just that simple — short the contacts together to trigger it. This is the ISO standard design, and almost all hotshoe flashes follow it. Modern, fancier flashes will have additional pins used for per-manufacturer proprietary control, but usually shorting the center pin to the sides of the shoe will cause a manual flash even on these. as a lowest-common-factor "compatibility language".

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