Minolta 1200 Ring flash

XKAES wrote: Thanks for the info, but can you clarify. The flash shoe on the Control Unit of the Minolta 1200 Ring Flash has three connections. To me that indicates TTL flash capability. Am I missing something?

It's a film era flashgun with TTL compatibility on film cameras with TTL-OTF metering.
ie , the 7000AF , or later models via the flash shoe adapter .
On a digital cameras the metering is different as they don't use film to meter off .
They meter by pre-flash TTL metering , which film ere flash guns don't do .
You need the correct controller as shown above .
The last series of flash Minolta did were for both film and digital cameras , the first lot of flashes Sony did were rebadged Minolta's , but they dropped support for the ringflash as the sold a crappy LED ring light .
One was for sale recently , but appears to have sold .
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Used-Minolta-Macro-Flash-hg-MFC-1000-/134104889895?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l6249&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

I have two of these Minolta ones and a Sony .
The Sony is only compatible with the twin flash , whereas the Minolta uses both the twin flash and ring flash .
The second Minolta one I got was bundled with a Dimage 7i .
I got the lot for the princely sum of £25 !

Edited by neilt3 - 09 May 2022 at 17:32

The original controller for this unit was not capable of Pre-Flash TTLsince it dates back to the original AF series of bodies/flash from 1985(4000AF, 2800AF, 1800AF), so it will only work in manual mode. The operation of the 4 AF assist lights would also be a problem with this. To maximize its adaptation would require 2 adapters: Minolta FS-1100 and Sony ADP-AMA.

It would work in TTL if you replace the flash control unit by the Minolta MFC-1000 unit only which is a clone of the body of the 3600HS(D) flash . The central connector on this can accommodate both the 1200AF and R1200 ring flash heads with no difference in operation.

It would still require a Sony ADP-AMA adapter

You would also gain, Manual flash control from 1/1 to 1/64 and possibility to use the twin flash unit T2400



Edited by michelb - 09 May 2022 at 14:52

Yes and no. It will fire but at full power only, I took strips of ND gels and velcroed them over the tubes, can't exactly remember but it seems like it took ND3's to make it usable with the Tamron 90.