Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Adding manual power control to the Canon 200E

So what do you do with an old flash with no manual power control? You modify it of course.

Not such a big deal if the flash in question has an Auto mode sensor, just replace the sensor with a logrithmic pot. But if it is a TTL only flash then you have a lot more work.

In 1990 Canon released a small hotshoe mount flash the 200E. As bare bones as you can get. Controlled by A-TTL only.

It has a power switch to turn it on and a ready light to tell you when it was (you guessed it) ready to fire. Nothing else for controls. It doesn't even have a test button.


While it can be used on an old A-TTL film camera but it is next to useless for off camera work. So I changed by adding manual power control, adding a test button, and an optical slave circuit. Still to come is a 1/8" jacj so it can be triggered by an RF or external optical trigger. As soon as I decide where to put it.

The top image is the front view of a modified Canon 200E flash. The focus assist light was removed and a solar cell used for optical triggering (and other parts) were added. The small yellow pin on the lower left is the new test switch.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Community mosaic/mixed media mural

I was asked by Ursula Neufeld of Glass Garden Mosaics to take some pictures of a mural project she is involved in. The Red Road Lodge and Studio 631 (a drop in arts center) is getting a face lift. And rather than just a coat of paint the facility is getting a mixed media mural.