Vivitar 283 flashgun

My Dad used to be pretty into photography before I came along and he still has all his equipment, so he kindly passed it onto me. He had a Vivitar 283 flashgun and used it with a Fujica AX5, and when I was buying my Canon 350D, he asked the sales assistant if it would be possible to put the Vivitar gun on the Canon hotshoe. She said no because it would blow my camera up (or words to that effect). This was almost 2 years ago, but recently I've been reading online that you can use the flashgun with my camera. I've been using it off camera and syncing it to my pop-up flash, but I don't want to risk using it on my hotshoe just in case it does 'blow' my camera up.
I just wondered if anyone knew for definite whether or not it would damage my camera if I used it.

It will depend I think if the hot shoe contacts of the Fujica are the same as the Canon, they may be but they may not.

I have a old Cobra flash unit from the 1970s and that works on my just bought camera but it is the same make as the one it was purchased for in the first place.

Think I would be a bit wary of using it on the hot shoe unless Canon say it is ok.

The old flashguns used to put a large voltage across the contacts whereas digital cameras trigger at around 5v. I can't tell you for 100% for sure but you're doing the right thing by not trying. I have a Vivitar 285 from the 80's and iit can only be used as a slave off camera.