My lights won't fire with by new xti, is the hotshoe different from the canon rebel??

Thanks,
Aaron

Aaron,
Shouldn't be any different, that I know of...

Got it figured out.
Thanks.

Got it figured out.
Thanks.

What was the deal?

A friend of mine that got a xti for christmas called me last night saying she couldnt get the add on flash that came with her camera was really dim when she used the test cycle and wouldnt work at all on the camera.

Thanks
Mike

On my rebel it didn't matter which way you put the hotshoe onto the camera, meaning with the cord to the left or right, but with the xti, it had to go on a certain way.
Obviously I should have tried that before posting.

although, I find that the xti compared to my rebel takes super crappy low light pics. With my strobes, they are fairly crisp, but just a general outdoor shot with my 50mm 1:8, not crisp at all. Even with my strobes they are not super crisp as compared to my rebel, hopefully it's just user error and I can figure it out.

Aaron

The hotshoe is the same for all Canon Digital cameras, and most (later) film cameras as well, however the camera firmware IS different. The nice thing is the newer Canon flashes are all backwards compatable, and in a pinch the older flash will work on newer cameras, just won't have all the features of the newer flash units such as ETTL II. The point being you can use any of their ETTL I and ETTL II flash units on any digital SLR from the 300d to the the 1D series and it will fire the flash.

Your hotshoe cord should only go on ONE WAY even on the ollder Rebel, just as the flash should only go on one way. If it goes on more than one way check the hotshoe on the camera, it's probably damaged or loose. And yes, they do come loose, my old 1D is notorious for it, and every year when I get it cleaned they have to tighten it, even if I use two or three times in that year.

JS