With the purchase of the Sony Alpha 100, I knew going in that it doesn’t have a PC sync terminal for studio flash connectivity like my Maxxum 7 film camera. An adapter would be necessary to accomplish this. Trigger voltage is an issue with newer electronic cameras, but since I use AlienBees (B800 model specifically) which produce a sync / trigger voltage of less than 6V, these are safe to use with just a passive adapter. The Wein Safe-Sync adapter (around 50 bucks) just reduces all external flash trigger voltage from up to 400V down to 6V, so if you use strobes that already produce only 6V or less, you don’t need to spend that kind of coin for an adapter.That being said, the official Minolta FS-1100 adapter is passive and doesn’t feature a PC sync connection; so I came across this generic passive hot shoe adapter on the ‘Bay and decided “Why Not?.” Actually I went online and did some research on this adapter before saying “Why Not?”. GadgetInfinity out of Hong Kong is the company I purchased this product from, although I have seen others supply it. I’ll give them a plug for having a reasonable price, quick shipping and good communication.This adapter works fine with my Sony Alpha as long as the flash mode is set to ‘Fill-Flash’. It fires my AlienBees perfectly, and not that I will ever need to, but it does allow me to use the older Maxxum 2800AF flash with its standard shoe connection. Be careful what standard hot shoe flash you use. If it’s fairly old, it may have very high trigger voltage which could damage the camera using a passive adapter like this. Always discover the trigger voltage of any on-camera flash or studio strobe you intend to use with any newer electronic camera. Life sucks when a $20 EBay flash damages a new $1000 digital camera.
Friday, January 12, 2007
Let There Be Light
With the purchase of the Sony Alpha 100, I knew going in that it doesn’t have a PC sync terminal for studio flash connectivity like my Maxxum 7 film camera. An adapter would be necessary to accomplish this. Trigger voltage is an issue with newer electronic cameras, but since I use AlienBees (B800 model specifically) which produce a sync / trigger voltage of less than 6V, these are safe to use with just a passive adapter. The Wein Safe-Sync adapter (around 50 bucks) just reduces all external flash trigger voltage from up to 400V down to 6V, so if you use strobes that already produce only 6V or less, you don’t need to spend that kind of coin for an adapter.That being said, the official Minolta FS-1100 adapter is passive and doesn’t feature a PC sync connection; so I came across this generic passive hot shoe adapter on the ‘Bay and decided “Why Not?.” Actually I went online and did some research on this adapter before saying “Why Not?”. GadgetInfinity out of Hong Kong is the company I purchased this product from, although I have seen others supply it. I’ll give them a plug for having a reasonable price, quick shipping and good communication.This adapter works fine with my Sony Alpha as long as the flash mode is set to ‘Fill-Flash’. It fires my AlienBees perfectly, and not that I will ever need to, but it does allow me to use the older Maxxum 2800AF flash with its standard shoe connection. Be careful what standard hot shoe flash you use. If it’s fairly old, it may have very high trigger voltage which could damage the camera using a passive adapter like this. Always discover the trigger voltage of any on-camera flash or studio strobe you intend to use with any newer electronic camera. Life sucks when a $20 EBay flash damages a new $1000 digital camera.
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