Trigger Minolta

ebay trigger wont work with sunpak 355af flash?

I wrote a few sellers on eBay about a trigger for my 355af and NONE of them work with the flash i have, so says the eBay seller, it's making me kind of sad, so i would like to know why they wont work with my flash?(i was looking at the right mount ones and everything) I have a Sony a200k and the Minolta mount sunpak flash.

This will not be a simple answer but I hope it helps.

I found the following on ebay

http://cgi.ebay.ca/Radio-Studio-Speed-Light-Trigger-Mount-PT-04-PT04-Sony-/280531651313?pt=AU_Cameras_Photographic_Accessories

This is supposed to work for:
Transmitter for Cameras:
SONY a100/a200/a300/a350/a500/a550/a700/a750/a850/a900, MINOLTA a7D/a5D
Receiver for Flashes:
Minolta 3600HSD, 5400HSD, 5600HSD, Sony F36AM, F42AM, F56AM, F58AM, Studio flash with 3.5/6.35mm Sync jack

So because it says a200 I am guessing it will also work for the a200k.

Now this is where it gets complicated. Does the 355AF work on your camera? If so does it control the power of the flash? Or does it shoot at full power only? From what I read about this flash for Minolta/Sony is that it will fire but it fires full power only.

I have a 355AF for Canon and one for Nikon. These flashes were designed for film cameras. During an exposure with a film camera a sensor saw the reflection off the film and once there was enough light for a proper exposure it sent a signal to the flash to tell it to turn off. Then came digital cameras. The same technique did not work. New flashes were designed (but they used the same mount that was used with the film cameras). The camera now had the flash send out a "pre-flash" light pulse in order to determine the scene lighting requirement then it opened the shutter and did the exposure flash with the power calculated from the pre-flash. The older film camera flashes do not work this way so when you use a film flash you end up getting full power only. (This is how Canon and Nikon work and I expect Sony/Minolta are the same).

So you may be able to trigger the 355AF with the above radio triggers but you will only get a full power blast since the 355AF did not come with manual power control. Some other older film flashes did have the option of setting the output power on the flash. You could set the power for 1/1 full power, 1/2 power, 1/4 power, etc. Many Nikon flashes could do this manual power setting control, some Canon flashes, some third party flashes from Sunpak and Vivitar to name a few. As I said, unfortunately the 355AF did not have the manual power control option.

So even with the above radio trigger you will have limited use of this combination. I think the sellers are telling you that it will not work because they don't know if it will work and they don't want to sell it if they think it will be returned if it doesn't. But like I said, even if it does work I don't think it is a good flash to use due to the lack of manual power control.

I also found the following on ebay. http://cgi.ebay.ca/Wireless-Radio-Flash-Trigger-2R-SONY-Nikon-Canon-Pentax-/110571940571?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0

This seems odd but not so odd when you understand flash availability. The above transmitter will work on your camera and it will trigger the recievers. But one reciever has a hotshoe connection for a Sony/Minolta and the second has a hotshoe mount for a Nikon/Canon. Now why are they giving you a Nikon/Canon receiver? So you can use flashes with a more standard mount, so you have a lot more options. They assume you will have at least one Sony/Minolta mount flash and then expect that if you need a second one you would get sonething else.

Since all the transmitter/receiver do is transfer the "fire NOW" signal it doesn't matter who's flash you use. So you have a lot more options for a remote flash compared to the Sony/Minolta mount flashes.

So this is an option for you but it still may not be the best option. (Oh God this is getting complicated!) Your best bet is to use an adapter and switch the Sony/Minolta mount on your camera to something more standard. See http://www.flashzebra.com/products/0131/index.shtml The reason you want to do this is because the above radio triggers are not all that reliable. There are better that are a bit more expensive but in the end you will be much better off (believe me I know). With this adapter you can then use a transmitter with a standard mount and a very good radio trigger to use would be the RF-602 http://cgi.ebay.ca/YONGNUO-RF-602-Wireless-Remote-Flash-Trigger-Nikon-/260629803377?pt=Camera_Flash_Accessories This is just one seller and the first I picked off ebay. I am not recommending this seller, or this one. http://cgi.ebay.ca/RF602-RF-602-Wireless-Remote-Flash-Trigger-CANON-/170528471328?pt=Camera_Flash_Accessories The first is listed for Nikon and the second for Canon. As far as I know the transmitter and recievers are the same but the cable that you can plug into the receiver and use it as a shutter release (instead of for triggering a flash) is different for the Canon and the Nikon.

So these are far more reliable than the 433Mhz designs and they don't cost much more.

Then you need a decent flash that has power control. That is a whole different question and you should go to http://www.flickr.com/groups/strobist/ for that question.

But if you wanted to add power control to your 355AF I know how to do that. I did a writeup on it here. http://www.flickr.com/groups/strobist/discuss/72157607679753284/ I design electronics for a living so I was able to do this but nobody in their right mind should even consider this. Just buy yourself another flash.

God I hope this helps you since it sure took a lot of time to wite.

OK a bit more. As far as inexpensive off camera flash the following offer a lot for the money. http://speedlights.net/2010/07/14/yongnuo-yn-560-speedlite-review/ and http://speedlights.net/2010/03/18/yongnuo-yn460-ii/ If you buy them from ebay it is recommended to get them from the manufactures store on ebay rather than some of the other resellers. The manufacture offers a 1 year warranty and many of the others will only exchange the flash if it failed when you got it. Another option is http://lumopro.com/product.php?id=25 but it is more expensive.

In case you are not familiar with it yet you should check out this blog http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/02/welcome-to-strobist.html Lots of great information on the use of off camera lighting.

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Here is a remote trigger made with an old film canister. It’s a very simple built and will allow for wired remote triggering of your camera. It would probably take you longer to pick out a trigger from a camera store than to make this. Anyone who has film should already have the required film canister, and the other parts are not hard to come by either, putting the cost of this innovative trigger at near zero.

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Trigger Minolta