drklrd Loc: Cincinnati Ohio

I am just wondering how many of us out there find the filters we had in 35 mm and 2 1/4 days adaptable to digital? Some of mine seem to be. Then there is the flash problem as in were your old flash guns still good for the go? I found my old White
Lightening's still can be used. With the White Lightening the company says there is a way to know how much voltage is across the flash terminals. Using old flash units can be dangerous to you camera body if the voltage across the terminals is to high a value. Even my radio remote is good to go. As for light meters they too can still be very usefull.

JPL

I am using a lot of this old stuff without any problems. Have lot of filters and old flashes. Never put those flashes on the camera but use them with optical triggers. Works well in studio and at home when I want some better lighting.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

I sold, gave away, threw away anything I had that was old.
My new Canon 600 flash is a complex computer designed to work flawlessly with the computers in my new cameras. My old Thyristerized Sunpak tripod mount flash was a great flash in its day but can't hold a candle to my new one. I have no use for any of the old stuff. I even got rid of my film cameras and replaced with a high-end EOS film camera so I can use all my modern lenses with it on full AF. It's just like using a modern digital camera only it's recording on film with no chimping!
You don't have to forget the old days, just don't live in them!!!
SS

BebuLamar

Filters work the same way although for color filter you could get similar result in post.

Kuzano

I spent a lot of time using color filters for effect both in color and B&W photography over the years since I started photographing in the Sixties.

Digital didn't really change all of that, and I have a batch of about 20 filters in one of my bags. Filters for various effects work the same in front of digital lenses as they did on film. Change your camera over to monochrome, and the color filters have the same effect on the image as they did when you/I were shooting B&W film years ago.

All that stuff is still useful, rather than learning how to get filter effects in the Post processing software. The information is still available on the internet as well.

Brasspounder001 Loc: Erewhon

I still use filters, especially red and orange for b & w images. As for flashes, never.

James Slick Loc: Pittsburgh,PA

James Slick Loc: Pittsburgh,PA

Correct! Oftentimes we forget that even if the sensitized media has changed, Light hasn't. Photography is photography, Glass plate, film or digital. Get out you "film" filters, folks and give 'em a go.!

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

The thing is, you would have to decide which color filter to use beforehand. But it you apply them in post, you could try various color filter effects and decide which you like best.

James Slick Loc: Pittsburgh,PA

Yes,true enough, But that doesn't preclude using "old school" gear if 1, You just want to and 2, It does the job. I often hang some of my old manual focus Pentax glass on my modern cameras because.......Reasons!😀. That's the appeal of this hobby, It's about the art and the science. Both "old school" and "new school" techniques can be used alone or combined!

leftj Loc: Texas

Curious - which high-end EOS film camera do you have?

aellman Loc: Boston MA

There is a little adapter you can buy which goes between the shoe and the flash. It limits the voltage going to the camera. I use this with my venerable 40 year old Vivitar 283 which, if not for the adapter, might turn the camera into a paperweight. >Alan

agillot

use a $ 6.00 voltmeter to measure the volts at the center pin with flash on .a modern or semi modern flash has around 5 v , a old one could have 200 + v .

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Old filters.... assuming they are the right size, all are certainly still usable. They just are largely unnecessary with digital. I no longer carry most filters I used with film. I usually only carry three types: Circular Polarizer, Neutral Density and UV/Protection (the latter only installed when actually needed). Those are useful filters. I also sometimes use a few "special effects - portrait" filters... black mesh, black splatter, for example. But I no longer bother with color conversion, color correction, black & white filters, fog/soft focus and some other special effects, nor any graduated neutral density. With digital I can do everything those filters offer, in-camera or in post-processing... often even better than was ever possible with the filters.

Old flash... dedicated flash might need an update to work properly. The flash I used with my film EOS work fine with my digital EOS. Older manual or thyristor controlled flash also work fine.

Old Studio strobes... are mostly just like manual flash and fully usable. A set of older Norman monolights work just as well on all my cameras, film or digital, old or new.

Yes, trigger voltage of older flash and strobes is something you need to take care about. Some old flash has as high as 400 volt trigger voltages... while some more recent cameras (both film and digital) could only tolerate as little as 6 volts! Mix those two and you will quickly fry the circuitry of a camera. Most cameras were at least able to handle 24 volts, though... And a lot of flashes and strobes had lower voltages. Plus all the most recent cameras from Canon and Nikon that I'm aware of have been improved to be able to handle 250 volts.

There are many ways to isolate a high voltage flash to protect a lower voltage camera. Wein SafeSync (or similar) can go between camera and a hotshoe mounted flash. A simple optical slave can be used to trigger remote flash/strobe safely (lots of flash and strobes have an optical slave built-in), using a camera's built in flash or another compact flash unit as a trigger. Any radio or optical wireless controller/triggering system will safely isolate camera from the flash or strobe (just be sure the receiver unit is up to handling the voltage).

There used to be a trigger voltage list online, for older flash units. It was compiled from various users who tested their own flashes. There also were instructions how to test your own with inexpensive meter available from local hardware store.

Old radio remotes... it depends upon how much remote control you need or want. Some of the modern ones allow you to remotely adjust many flash and some studio strobes, as well as trigger them. Older ones tended to be triggers-only. Some of the newer ones support features such as High Speed Sync and Rear Curtain Sync, too... which older ones typically didn't.

Old light meters... generally work fine, but may not cover the full range of ISO and shutter speeds available on a modern camera. Also, some older meters might read out in different increments than modern cameras. I replaced a couple older meters with a newer one for these reasons.... the old ones didn't have some of the highest ISOs or faster shutter speeds of my cameras, and the new meter can be set to read out in 1/3 stop increments, same as I use on my camera. (I kept the old meters as backups... Especially one of them because I have various accessories for it such as a film plane adapter and fiber optic sensor extension, which aren't available for my new meter.) OTOH, one of my oldest meters is an analog Sekonic that doesn't require a battery and is just as accurate as the day it was made... about 30 or 35 years ago (unfortunately it's not able to meter flash, though).

There's nothing wrong with "old"... Sometimes old is better than "new".

Heck, I'm getting old myself! Or maybe I should say "vintage", or "experienced".

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

37 years later, I still use my Vivitar 285s.

Some of them are 6 volts, some 330, so you MUST check. Search the web... I found a really good spreadsheet listing flash models and sync voltages. I lost it, and the link, though.

As for filters, most work, as long as you set white balance BEFORE attaching them. Old polarizers do not work. You must use circular polarizers with digital cameras.