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Today’s digital camera’s are wonders of technology, packed with circuits and transistors. With this transition to digital comes a few dangers that you should be aware of, especially if you fall into the following category of photographer: 1) you’re buying some studio strobes and 2) you want them on the cheap.

Almost all digital cameras made today can only handle a voltage level of less than six volts at the PC socket. But many older strobes and even some manufactured today produce voltage levels much higher than six volts, some as many as 400 volts! This can completely fry that shiny expensive SLR you’ve saved up so long to buy, rendering it completely useless.

The Safety Net

The good news is that there are a couple of safeguards you can put in place to protect your camera.

Wein SSMP Safe-Sync for Monoplug

If you’re buying new strobes or some recently made, the easiest safeguard is to simply check with the manufacturer about the voltage level. With this becoming more of an issue these days, many manufacturers are putting the voltage levels in product manuals or in product specifications on their web sites or brochures. Some even advertise that they have a “digital camera” friendly voltage level below X volts.

If you’re buying older strobes, strobes that you know have a high voltage level, or you just don’t know, there are a few adapters available on the market to protect your camera. They work by simply dropping the voltage down to a digital-safe level. Wein makes adapters that will work with several connections, including monoplug, household, PC, and hotshoe. These will run you between $45 and $55, but if you’re getting a serious deal on the strobes, that’s a cost well justified.

So before you hook that strobe up to your expensive DSLR, take just a second to consider this issue. It’s a bigger one than you might realize. I should also mention that just because you haven’t had a problem yet doesn’t mean you’re safe. You might still have a strobe with voltages that are too high, it just hasn’t popped your camera yet.

EDIT: A comment from Christian made me realize I left out a couple of important points in the original article. First off, if you trigger your strobes wirelessly with devices such as the Gadget Infinity or Pocket Wizard triggers, then this is not an issue because the strobes are not directly hooked up to your camera. Second, this issue also applies to smaller shoe mounted flashes. While newer flashes are made for digital cameras, if you’re shopping for a deal on an older flash, be careful of this issue. Here’s a handy page that lists the voltage level of many flashes. Thanks for the links Christian.