Like most people who buy eBay lots, I have extra items that sellers tossed in. For example, very early on, when I had no intention of forming a Minolta collection, I won an X-700 system that came with a “G” winder still new in its box. That and the VC-7 that came with my Maxxum 7 were put aside while I played with the cameras. I now have nine drives/winders along with boxes of filters, camera straps, remote release cables, third-party lenses, and flash units.
In November, I decided to wade into all the stuff in my studio. In 2020, the studio was a nearly empty room. But by last November, it had become a jumble of art supplies, photography gear, still-life props, manuals, and books—chaos. Tired of losing items in plain sight, I decided to organize.
The thought of organizing brought a sense of dread because it meant going through every box to determine what was there and whether I had any use for it. After a few weeks, the art supplies and books were done. The photography gear was not completed until February. Of course, there were far more items (and more duplicates) than I had imagined. Now, everything is stored in boxes and labeled for easy access. The big surprise in all this inventory activity was the number of flash units I had—14. Many are still in their original cases and look new or close to new. Tossing them would be a terrible waste, so I considered selling them. But listing them for sale required testing to determine whether they function correctly—more work. Having examined each flash, I realized two were for manual Minoltas, which intrigued me. Even better, two were professional-level units.
- Minolta
- Manual
- Auto 200X
- Minolta Auto 25
- Autofocus
- 4000
- 2800AF
- 314i
- 3200i
- 3200i
- 3500xi
- 3500xi
- 5400HS
- Manual
- Third-party
- 6600 Quantaray
- Vivitar Auto 252
- Vivitar 2000
- Vivitar 2800D
- Vivitar 3700
The Auto 200x and Auto 25 were released in the 1970s. The Auto 200x was designed specifically for the Minolta XD11. I cannot find a release year for the Auto 25, but it appears in the SR-T 202 user manual. Both flashes are designed for on-camera use. I haven’t determined what cameras (AF/manual) the third-party units go with. The Minolta AF flashes are easier to sort out, being named after the camera generation in which they were released.
The 4000F was released with Maxxum 7000/9000 cameras and is quite powerful. It has full manual control, a telescoping head, and swivel, bounce, and zoom capability. The same is true of the 5400HS, which also has wireless capability and four operating modes. Once I learned of the capabilities of the 4000AF and 5400HS, I stopped researching the rest—at least for now.
I tested the 4000AF and 5400HS stand-alone; both seem to work fine. Testing made me curious—could I use these for fancy studio shots? I have seen YouTube videos of photographers making it appear a subject was shot at night using a bright flash and small aperture. Low-key shots, using flashes to darken the background, were equally intriguing. With two high-quality flash units on hand, why not give them a try?
Being naive about flash use, I was unaware that Minolta cameras switched hot-shoe architectures after the first AF generation. So, the 4000AF does not work natively with my Maxxum 7 or 7D. The 5400HS does work with the Maxxum 7 and wirelessly, too! However, the last thing I want to do is burn through film practicing with a wireless flash. The 5400HS works on-camera with the 7D, but the 7D has a different protocol when communicating the flash than the Maxxum 7, so the 7D will fire the 5400HS, but I couldn’t get it to fire wirelessly with the settings I wanted. Thus, I had a lot of flashes but no idea how to get them working as I wished—off-camera with full manual control. As it turns out, I already owned the books needed to solve the problem: How to Select and Use Minolta Maxxum Cameras and How to Select and Use Minolta SLR Cameras (covers X, XG, and XD series), both by Carl Shipman.
These books, which had sat unused for years, are a gold mine of clearly explained Minolta technical information. Using them, I was able to determine which accessories were needed to get my flashes working with my 7D! (Yeah, I’m going to need more batteries.)
In the next Flash-a-Palooza post, I’ll discuss the Shipman books and the accessories acquired to get everything working.
