Well I've come to the conclusion that the adapter and the camera just don't like each other. I've tested the camera with a Sony/Minolta dedicated flash and it works fine, I've tested the adapter with another camera (Dynax 3000i) and it also works correctly but put the two together and nothing. I think I'll give up on this for now and see if I can trigger the studio flash from the Sony dedicated flash unit, unlike the built-n flash there doesn't seem to be any pre-flash so hopefully this should work.

Unless you use manual power settings, there is a always a preflash with the Sony dedicated strobes for this model.

There is also a preflash with the KM 2500(D), 3600HS (D) and 5600HS (D), unless you use manual power settings on the strobes. I know the 5600HS has this ability (manual power settings). I'd need to dig through the manuals for the rest.

Hi Jim,




First of all thanks for all the support. What I finally ended up doing was using a Sony HLV-F56AM to trigger the studio flash. As you suggested I set it to manual with the lowest power setting. Someone else suggested using a piece of developed but unexposed slide film to block the light from the camera top flash (apparently it will let IR through but not the visible light) and this also seemed to work. Not an ideal solution perhaps but at least I now have something workable. Thanks again for the help.

With a bit of thought it is possible to construct a simple voltage adaptor ( 3v no matter what the master slave flash trigger voltage is). The master is mounted on top of the adaptor and need only be a small generic flashgun, with a piece of red gelatine over the head. It can be constructed either as a camera hotshoe mount or bracket mounted, with a lead to the camera sync socket

I use the Minolta PCT-100 & it fires my Vivitar 285HV right off the hot shoe. I have an Interfit infrared trigger that will not fire using the hot shoe (I spoke to Patterson about this & they said, due to the major makers all using new & different flash configurations, they have had to change their units to work with the majority of flashes). Sooooooooo.......my Interfit sits on my PCT-100, but I have to plug it into 7D's PC Synch port before it will fire.

Pity Patterson did not state the polarity of said equipment . That could be the trouble. Have a check around with a meter regarding polarity. My studio flash`s all have negative polarity. So the plug in slave sensors I made have to be reversed.

Hey Jim and Courage..

Great post..a rare one.

I just finished my testing with a IR trigger and a Maxxum 7 with FS-1100 adapter.

Does NOT work :-( I am investigating into buying a Sony Alpha. And wanted to make sure I can shoot in studio setting with wireless slave strobes.

Looks like the only solution is to use the 5600 that I have in manual mode to trigger the flashes...

more after some more testing...

-Shri

Shri

Out of curiousity, what brand of trigger did you try to use?

I've seen multiple reports of triggers working via an FS-1100 (both Pocket Wizards, and radio triggers bought for $19 on Ebay).

I also use a third party FS-1100 equivalent to trigger my Sunpaks with.

But, I've seen a few reports of triggers not working, too.

So, I think we probably need to try and keep track of triggers with problems and try to determine if there is something in common with them. If I had to guess, it's either polarity or voltage (perhaps too low).

Jim.

Its a trigger by Yin-Yan (a chinese company I think). I acquired this through EBay.

This triggersworks well with the PC terminal, but not with the FS-1100.!! Yes..may be the polarity or voltage..but I am not sure. It didnt have a manual with it..

BTW, this is not the adapter with the pc-sync in it. This is genuine Minolta fs-1100. I was not very comfortable getting that 3rd party adapter from ebay - where it was only available in China

Any way. my main concern is right now whether to move to Sony Alpha or not.....I Love studio photography but dont want to use the workarounds of using a flash at 1/32 instead of a simple trigger...although I own a 5600HS.