m6 ttl and a canon 580ex ii?

[drazin]

will these 2 play nice together?

i wanted to ask before i tried as ive heard that some flashes could fry m6 ttl.

[Photon42]

are you able to measure the strobe's voltage, as described in http://www.botzilla.com/photo/g1strobe.html?
Then you'd need the trigger voltage specification for the M6TTL. My take is, any voltage of around 6V and below measured at the foot of the flash is ok, but I am not an expert.

Rgds
Ivo

[x-ray]

I'm not certain but I think most if not all small strobes like the canon are low voltage. I know the 20D and 300D were designed for these flashes and the voltages on the non series 1's are low voltage only. If I remember correctly the only canons designed for higher voltages are the series 1's like the 1D, 1Ds, 1DsII and etc.

I used my leica M's with my speedotron studio strobes that were 90v trigger circuits with no problem. Remember the Leicas predate the low voltage circuits of recent years.

Not certain but I don't think the M6ttl will talk to the ttl function of the M6ttl. Best bet for an auto strobe is the 283 vivitar and forget about TTL.

[alexz]

I'd say any contemporary on-camera flash units are safe to be used on any on-camera flash-accepting camera. Contemporary flashes are all low-voltages and designed to be driven by a nowadays cameras packed with precious electronics.
I used my cheap but trusty Sunpak 383 Super on my M6 Classic, your Canon unit will not do any harm to your M6 circuitry. Dunno however whether 580EX can be configured for manual or auto-thyristor mode of operation (necessary for proper exposures on M6).

[waileong]

The problem is not frying. Canon has the lowest trigger voltages in the industry (6v).

The problem is no TTL, which means you either shoot manual, or at best automatic, if the flash can be programmed for it.

[drazin]

wow. i dont know any of this stuff i guess i have to read up on using a flash with a m6 ttl.

[Sam N]

The 580EX can be set manually, so you won't have any problems. It is a bit of a waste of the capabilities of the M6TTL and the 580EX, but it will still work. You'll have to do the calculations in your head since the flash itself doesn't have a distance/aperture scale. You can calculate the power to use based on the guide number of the flash, film speed, distance, and aperture. The calculations will only really be accurate if you're aiming the flash head straight at the subject.

Whoops just realized I brought back a very old thread.