Does the Sunpak Power Zoom 4000AF work on a Canon Rebel?

You may download a copy of the manual from here.

Hi

you need to replace batteries

yes

The Sunpak PZ 4000 and 5000 were made for film cameras. I have one for my EOS film cameras. It works just fine. I know this series of flashes was not made for the digital cameras. It likely will not harm your camera if the flash is designed for your camera brand. But some functions will not work.
For example, do not use a flash for Minolta on a Nikon.
You risk damaging your cameras electronics or frying the flash.
Get their PZ 20, PZ 30, PZ40 or PZ 42X for your digital camera.

Regarding using the Sunpak 4000AF flash with my Canon EOS Digital Rebel, I can't get the flash to fire. There seems to be no combinations of settings that works to make the flash work. Could a weak battery in the Canon cause this? Does it require some other wire connector between the flash and the camera?

I know this is old technology now, I have a pocket digital for most of my uses, but I'd like to try bounce flash again on my old Rebel digital, and so I've gotten out my old camera and the flash I had bought for it. I had bought the Sunpak flash years ago and I honestly don't remember if I got it to work back then or not.

Thanks for any advice.

Yes, you can use Ni-mAh re-chargeable batteries with Sunpak Pz 4000

Canon digital uses E-TTL metering for best flash results, the older Sunpak unit isn't compatible with this, so it is not fully compatible. It may work in manual mode - but won't be as good as a more modern compatible digital flash like the Canon or Metz (eg 58AF1 Canon) versions.

The Rebel XTi has a sophisticated communication protocol between the camera and a dedicated flash. Only ETTL-II capable flashes can benefit from all the features the engineers at Canon thougt out. This means that with the otherwise superb Sunpak you won't be able to emit autofocus assist pulses, red-eye reduction pulses, the camera won't increase or reduce the flash intensity for bracketing, zoom lens settings won't be reflecting on the flash illumination angle, and so on. But! Set your Canon to full manual (125th sec), set Sunpak to auto, take one of the working apertures according to your taste (depth of field, etc.) and set the same aperture on the camera, and shoot. You still can use bounce flash. I am not sure about second curtain flash, I suspect it won't be possible. Both tele kit and milky filter in front of the flash head are of great help, you don't need to worry about the differences these make in flash intensity. Always keep in mind that the flash makes good exposure according to the given working aperture and, as long as you set the same aperture on the camera, the subject will be correctly illuminated. (I have a Sunpak 522 and a 455 and employ them this way, with success, on my XSi.) Of course you can set set the flash in full manual (M/PR/MD), using the left side, set knob and calculator dial, and this is the only way if you want to make series of shots, because the flash can only make bursts if the power is reduced to at least 1/16th. Good light, Laszlo

probably in MANUAL mode only.... my Nikon and Canon's work with the pz4000 (at a save trip voltage I may add) but in a manual mode as mentioned above.....

Hi,

The Alpha 100 only supports pre-flash TTL and ADI flash control which are not supported by the Sunpak. The flash should ignite, but automatic controlling of its brightness is not possible.

For more Information about the different Minolta/Sony Flash Metering modes cf. http://www.mhohner.de/sony-minolta/flashcomp_mm.php