I own a Vivitar 736AFC flash unit (in combination with a Canon EOS 1000FN) and plan to buy a Canon PowerShot G1 digital camera. Can the Vivitar flash unit be used with the G1 ? Any experiences ?

Thanx, Gerard.

-- Gerard Haagh (gh001@signet.nl), July 15, 2001

Answers

Nope. The Canon G1 insists on using an E-TTL capable flash. That leaves you with the Canon EX series of Speedlites and precious few third party units. And I have heard that there are some third party, E-TTL capable flashes that still won't work with the G1 or Pro 90.

What's worse, the G1 used to use generic manual strobes for them, but Canon has recently "upgraded" the firmware so that that option has all but been elliminated. I have an older G1, and as long as I don't opt for Canon's downloadable "upgrade" I can continue using old auto flashes and studio strobes (checking sync volt ages of course).

Unless Canon get's it's act together, I'd get an olympus.

-- Jim Strutz (j.strutz@gci.net), July 15, 2001.