Working with Minolta's wireless flash system

Morning all!

 

I have recently acquired a new 3600HS(D) flash unit. Being new to

flash photography I am really enoying using it, in the past I have

always worked with available light or a small amount of fill from

the onbody but this thing has opened so many doors for me! I would

have loved to have picked up the 5600HS(D) but at over $1000

Australian it was too much of a stretch for me at this point in time!

 

My problem is as follows - I can't for the life of me work out how

to get the unit to fire wirelessly without wireless ratio flash.

That is, the flash fires wirelessly when used in conjuction with the

onboard flash, but I cannot get it to fire wirelessly by itself.

The body I'm currently using it on is a Dynax 404si (STsi). The

body is soon to be given the boot for a nice new 7, but needless to

say I would like to be able to use it to it's full capacity with the

404.

 

According to the manual it should simply be a matter of disabling

the onbody flash, but when I do, neither fire. Any help from anyone

who has used this combo before or is an old hat with the WL system

would be most appreciated.

 

Even if you are unable to help me, feel free to use this thread as a

place to discuss experiences with the Minolta wireless flash system

as I'd love to hear them and learn through your experiences.

 

Cheers all, hope you're having a good day.

Mark,

 

I don't have the 404si so I cannot answer your question directly.. But can you expand on your line:

 

"the flash fires wirelessly when used in conjuction with the onboard flash, but I cannot get it to fire wirelessly by itself" ?

 

 

By the way, I have the Maxxum 7 and the wireless flash system works great! I have both a 3500xi and a 5600HS (just bought recently) and now I feel I am able to create a small studio out of this (with some simple reflectors)..

 

Here is also a 'famous' page on the Minolta Wireless Flash system:

 

http://home.imcnet.net/~waltsman/great.html

 

Johnny

The built in flash will always fire when using wireless. In normal (non ratio) mode it puts out only enough light to control the remote flash. In photos I have only seen a very small highlight from it when photographing shiny objects such as glass. The built in doesn't cast a shadow in normal wireless mode. In ratio mode it is obvious that it is adding light.

Tom

If you don't want to use the on-camera flash to trigger the wireless strobe, there's a wireless controller that plugs into the hot shoe. It will fire the flash without giving off any light from the camera. I forget the name at the moment, but you should be able to find it somewhere.

Thanks for your responses guys. I didn't realise I needed a wireless controller to trigger the off camera unit without the built in strobe.

 

I shall have to seek one out!

Check your manual to make sure that the 404si works with the remote flash controller. Some of the lower number cameras don't.

 

Tom

I know this might sound stupid, but leave the on-board flash up and rubber-band a piece of overexposed (dark) developed film over the flash. This film will act as an filter (blocking visible flashlight), Remote Flash will work flawlessly, and your accessory flash will be the only player in the image. Go ahead...try it.

 

Credit for the idea goes to Gary Friedman http://www.friedmanarchives.com/

He is "one of 3 people ever to truly understand the power of Minolta Wireless Flash."

<p>Hello,<br>

I am a fresh user of an "old" Dynax 7 and 5600HS (D) system. I have read everything I could find on net about the wireless flash triggering and ratios. I also experimented a bit with an empty camera and am now left with a few questions.</p>

<p>Since this is film and not the digital inflation I would love to get more answer in theory, before I go do tests on films. My questions are following:</p>

<p>1. When setting the Dynax 7 to WL mode, the screen asks to chose Normal or Ratio mode. The Normal mode is described as "only accessory flash fires". Yet when I use it, it appears the on camera flash fires as well.</p>

<p>2. When I select the Ratio mode, the Dynax 7 manual states "built-in flash with provide 1/3 and off camera flash 2/3 of the exposure". Now I understand this, but playing with the system further questions arise:</p>

<p>a: How will the camera determine that ratio regarding it does not know the distance of the off camera flash? There is no way the 4 segment TTL metering matrix can know what I aimed the flash at. Furthermore, it can not know the zoom setting I have chosen.</p>

<p>b: When in "Ratio mode" which is supposed to provide a fix 1/3 - 2/3 ratio I can still change the ratio on the off camera flash to the vice versa setting. However, due to the way it is marked I have no idea which one is the 2 and which the 1 in either cases.</p>

<p>c: Since it appears I can trigger the external flash via Ratio mode also when having the off camera flash in Manual mode I am curious how the system resolves this? Am I correct when I think that the camera should achieve a sufficient final exposure via OTF-TTL even when the off camera flash is in manual mode and set to any strength? Will the on camera flash do it's job to fill in the exposure deficit?</p>

<p>I suspect the Ratio mode must be some kind of approximation unless the system would do a TTL metered off camera flash up to 2/3 of the required exposure and then fill the 1/3 with the on camera after.</p>

<p>Anyway, I will be glad if this thread is not all dead by now and if I can get any response or thought about it before I go and spend 100 Euro testing this on film before I can use the knowledge on my subjects ...</p>

<p>Thank you for the answers!<br>

Rene Maurin</p>