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Canon makes flash units incompatible. A scandal?

7.5.2019

Translation: machine translated

The photography scene has found something to get excited about again. Canon has changed the hot shoe on certain entry-level SLR cameras so that everything no longer works as usual. A scandal or is it all half as bad?

First a few basics for those who are not familiar with the details. The thing that an external flash is attached to is called a hot shoe. It is half standardised and half brand-specific. The size and the electronic contact in the centre, which is used to trigger the flash, are standard. The other contacts are manufacturer-specific. They are usually used to transfer information such as focal length or distance from the camera to the flash unit so that the flash automatically triggers correctly.

Simply triggering the flash also works with flash units from other brands. For example, you can mount a Nikon flash unit on a Canon SLR. But then you have to set everything manually because the electronic transfer of the settings does not work.

On the left, the Canon EOS 5D Mark III with the centre contact. On the right, the EOS 2000D without centre contact.

Canon has now removed the centre contact from certain very affordable entry-level cameras. As a result, flash units that are actually built for other brands no longer work at all - not even manually. The cameras affected from our shop are the super-affordable Canon EOS 2000D and the slightly more expensive EOS 250D.

It was this YouTube video that drew the world's attention to this flaw. What is not quite clear in the video, however: Whether removing the centre contact has further consequences than just disabling the manual shutter release. The guy says that this would make most third-party flashes incompatible. That would really be a scandal. After all, there are third-party manufacturers who make their flash units fully compatible with Canon so that everything works automatically.

Before you go crazy with rage and malice like the commenters on the Petapixel blog, you should clarify what the limitations really are.

So I decide to give it a try: I pick up the Canon EOS 2000D and the Godox V860IIC flash unit from the shop. The C in the name stands for Canon: it is supposed to be fully compatible with Canon cameras. I want to try it out with a third-party manufacturer because there is a suspicion that Canon is somehow trying to favour its own flash units.

Cameras

CHF418.–

Canon EOS 2000D

24.10 Mpx, APS-C / DX

Flashguns

Godox V860II Canon

Plug-on flash, Canon

Slide-on flash works without any problems

I screw the Godox flash onto the camera, switch both on and pull the trigger. The flash fires. The photo is correctly exposed. I change the zoom and see that this is recognised on the flash unit. As well as the aperture and the focus distance. The flash works perfectly.

Godox has now provided a firmware update for download, which should eliminate incompatibilities between these low-cost Canon cameras and the V860II. The installation of this firmware update is so complicated that I seriously considered writing a separate article about it. But everything worked perfectly for me before the update. Except for the wireless flash, which has nothing to do with the missing centre contact and didn't work after the update either. I don't know why. If you know anything about it, please write us a comment!

It's not a scandal - but it's unnecessary

The missing centre contact on the hot shoe is just a minor shortcoming that will become even smaller in the future. At some point, the most important third-party manufacturers will all be so advanced that they will no longer need the centre contact. And connecting incompatible third-party brands has never been the be-all and end-all, at best a stopgap solution.

On the other hand, Canon's measure is incomprehensible. The company will hardly sell any more of its own flash units. Nor will it save any costs by omitting a mini metal part. The loss of image of such an action far outweighs the benefits - if there are any at all. <p

17 people like this article

David Lee

Senior Editor

David.Lee@digitecgalaxus.ch

My interest in IT and writing landed me in tech journalism early on (2000). I want to know how we can use technology without being used. Outside of the office, I’m a keen musician who makes up for lacking talent with excessive enthusiasm.

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Canon makes flash units incompatible. A scandal?

Slide-on flash works without any problems

It's not a scandal - but it's unnecessary

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