Greetings, My apologies if this has already been covered. If I can use my SC-17 cord on my M6TTL, then why cant I use one of my Nikon flash units (maybe the tiny SB-23) with the M6. I'll buy the Leica flash if I have to........But, do I have to?

Regards, Fred

-- Fred Argilagos (trgmail@snet.net), January 25, 2002

Answers

As I understand it, the contact locations on the cord are the same as on the M's shoe but the Nikon flash signals and voltages are not the same. You risk equipment damage if you use the Nikon flash with the M.

-- Douglas Herr (telyt@earthlink.net), January 25, 2002.

The pin confiruration may be the same, but what those pins cumminicate to the camera body and flash is not the same between the Nikon camera/flash and Leica camera flash. People have tried it, and bad things happen.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), January 25, 2002.

But you _can_ use a nikon flash in auto mode with a single contact hotshoe adapter cord like the Rowi I use with the Metz flashes.

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), January 25, 2002.

Contax also makes a cord that works -- it is slightly shorter I think, one meter versus five feet for the Nikon. It is also a little cheaper.

-- Rolfe Tessem (rolfe@ldp.com), January 25, 2002.

You can use your Nikon flash on your M6TTL with the SC17 cord -- you just cannot use the flash in TTL mode and have to use the AUTO or MANUAL mode on the flash. This is because the TTL circuitry for Nikon is not compatible with that of Leica (and vice-versa), even though they use the same arrangement for their contact pins.

:) Cheers,

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), January 25, 2002.

It would be nice if the Nikon strobes worked TTL on the Leicas but it shouldn't come as much surprise that they won't...after all the flash shoe of Leica's own R5-R7 and R8/M6TTL have identical contact configurations but are incompatible for TTL!

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), January 25, 2002.