Old Minolta flashes still useable?

The other day I came across a Minolta 'crazy foot' 5400 flashgun, at a silly-cheap price.

 

It looked powerful and well made, and had it not had the above-mentioned Minolta weird hotshoe, I might have bought it.

 

So. Are these old Minolta flashes useable with any modern camera? Is there, for example, a crazy-foot to Sony (almost as crazy) multi-shoe adapter?

 

Unfortunately, the small number of control buttons on Minolta's flashes of that era would seem to preclude any manual operation of the flash.

I direct you to Michael Hohner's excellent reference:

A Minolta/Sony Alpha Flash compendium

 

The menu is on the right there, and note in particular the section on Adapters.

Thanks for that Colin.

I'll investigate what functionality is available using a nutty-to-not-quite-so-nutty adapter.

 

Anyone would think the ISO standard hotshoe had never been invented! It's not like Minolta added anything particularly clever by throwing an accepted standard out of the window.

One thing - the flash just clicks into place on the older-style mounts. There's no tightening a screw to fix the flash shoe on to the mount.

 

I think you'll find that you can fire the flash, but the setttings have to made manually - there's no TTL-style automation of exposure. If you have a zoom lens attached the focal length may well be communicated to the flashgun, but that's about it.

 

A sample setup here.

Ah! Thanks Howard.

 

If the functionality is limited to manual only, then it's really not worthwhile buying an adapter for those old Minolta 'crazy-foot' flashes.

 

I already have a bunch of Nikon speedlights and similar that will fit straight onto the Sony multi-shoe. I can use those in manual and auto-aperture mode.

 

I just thought the Minolta flash might have had more compatibility with Sony cameras. Apparently not.

Ah! Thanks Howard.

 

If the functionality is limited to manual only, then it's really not worthwhile buying an adapter for those old Minolta 'crazy-foot' flashes.

 

I already have a bunch of Nikon speedlights and similar that will fit straight onto the Sony multi-shoe. I can use those in manual and auto-aperture mode.

 

I just thought the Minolta flash might have had more compatibility with Sony cameras. Apparently not.

 

Yeah I couldn't find a manual any where but it does seem to only do TTL and manual. No non TTL auto mode. I agree it's not useful.

I use a Sony ADP-MAA adapter and an old Minolta 5600HS flash and they work well together on a Sony A6000 and I get TTL control of the flash output.

Actually, the Minolta hotshoe had a few real advantages in terms of being able to easily (one handed) slot the flash in and not have to tighten anything. It also didn't have the fiddly, delicate metal contacts you find at the front of the current Sony ISO mount - and if you had the shoe cover on there, if a raindrop hit the top of the cover it couldn't get under it and cause a problem. Not so much with the ISO shoe on the A6500 - even a single good-sized drop of water WILL get in under the cover if it's in place.

That 5600HS flash is digital-compatible and superseded the 5400 which was made for film cameras. That conversion shoe does the job, but film era flashes are not fully compatible because the way of calculating flash exposure changed fundamentally.

That 5600HS flash is digital-compatible and superseded the 5400 which was made for film cameras. That conversion shoe does the job, but film era flashes are not fully compatible because the way of calculating flash exposure changed fundamentally.

 

OK, thanks for that info. The opportunity to get that 5600HS at a giveaway price has passed now. If another comes along I might well consider adding it to my extensive collection of speedlights. Although I very rarely use TTL flash control, it's so far proved much too inconsistent and flakey.

 

WRT drops of rain getting into the hotshoe: That's something I would do my utmost to avoid. Water and less-than-pro-quality digital cameras don't mix too well at all. And certainly not water and speedlights.... urghh! Makes me shudder to think of the consequences.