Arrrrrrrrrrrrg! I was afraid of this. I've contacted 3 retailers -
all supposedly Minolta dealers - and they couldn't answer the
question.
Alan Browne <alan.browne_at_FreeLunchVideotron.ca> wrote in message news:<B34Ac.111735$CD5.1493437_at_weber.videotron.net>...
> Dave Yuhas wrote:
>
> > Until I bought a Minolta 5600 HS (D) flash I could connect my Minolta
> > Spotmeter F to a Vivitar 283 with a standard sync cable. But the 5600
> > doesn't accept a standard sync cable (the Mind of Minolta at work).
> >
> > If you've accomplished this feat, please let me know what cord or
> > gizmo I need to connect the two.
>
>
> I may be wrong but you are likely SOL for two reasons:
>
> --no "AUTO" or "Non-CORD" mode on the Spotmeter F
> --no way to "test" fire the 5600HS other than the button on the
> flash.
>
> You need to put the meter in non-cord mode and hit "test" on the
> flash (at a manual setting of 1/1, 1/2, 1/4 ... 1/32 as
> appropriate) to measure the flash. Since the Spotmeter F doesn't
> have a non-cord mode ... (and how would you aim it while goofing
> with the flash, I don't know...). Perhaps hit the Spotmeter
> trigger and then the flash TEST button within 1/10 of a second
> afterwards... might work... clumsy at best).
>
> If there is a way to force the flash to manual fire via the four
> wire "Minolta" proprietary cable, I don't know what it is...
>
> In my home studio I sometimes hook up the 5600HS to the camera
> with the proprietary Minolta cables; set it manually as well as
> my studio flashes... when it fires, the studio lights go off on
> slave ... but to measure the 5600, I have to fire it with the
> test button not via a sync cable. (I use an incident flash meter
> which, one way or another, I can hang/prop or ask the subject to
> hold during metering of the 5600HS).
>
> G'luck.
