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I don't really know much about camera flash. Does anyone know if it's safe to use Canon Speedlite 188A Flash with Canon XTi?

Speedlite 188A Guide Number: 25 (ASA 100, m) or 41 (ASA 25, ft.).
Recycling Time: 0.5-8 sec with alkaline batteries and 0.5-6 sec. with Ni-Cd batteries on auto.
Number of Flashes: More than 200 with alkaline batteries and more than 70 with Ni-Cd batteries on auto.
Flash Duration: 1/700-1/40000 sec.
Aperture Choices: f2.8 (red) and f5.6 (green) at ASA 100 and manual.
Auto Coupling Ranges: 1 0-9.Om (1.0-5.6m with Wide Adaptor) at red "A". 0 5-4.5m (0.5-2.8m with Wide Adaptor) at green "A".
Flash Coverage: Covers 35mm lens. With Wide Adaptor, covers 28mm lens.
Size: 68 (W) x 52 (D) x 103 (H)mm. (2-11/16" x 2-1/16" x 4-1/16").
Weight: 290g (10-1 /4 ozs.) including batteries

Manual is here:

http://www.cameramanuals.org/flashes_me ... e_188a.pdf

More info from googling:

http://www.myphotoweb.com/Canon_camera/ ... s/188a.htm

I was thinking of buying a new 430EX II Flash, but I am wondering if I can learn how to use flash with this old Canon speedlite 188A flash that is built for the film camera.

Thanks for all responses.

Not 100% if it will work but if you do get it to work, you will have to use it in manual mode only, ie. no E-TTL or TTL for that matter.

According to the "internet" the voltage for that flash is 4.1v and is therefore safe to use on the hot shoe of your Xti.

http://www.botzilla.com/photo/strobeVolts.html

I guess I'll put the camera in "M" mode to play with it. I'm just wondering if this off-camera flash is better than the on-camera flash. Maybe the recycling flash time is better than the on-camera flash. Canon quotes a "approx. 3 second" internal flash recycle time for both the XT and XTi.

In general it's not a good idea to use older TTL flashes with your modern equipment.

First of all there's the danger of incompatible TTL voltages on the TTL pins...while the main trigger voltage may be safe, TTL pins aren't usually documented.

Second, even if you set the flash in manual mode there's voltage on the TTL pins and signals being transfered. These signals can confuse the camera and/or flash, and of course still be dangerous for the electronics.

IOW, you do so at your own risk...I wouldn't though (I've literally blown up ICs by sending improper voltage to it, and that was following the schematic wire by wire).

Use Tape?