ADP-AMA adapter with Dynax 7, TTL & HSS

Hyacin wrote: Yeah good call... $60 (used 3600 HS D I found) and problem solved. If I need more than one off-camera flash I can just shoot with my A9 ... not like I'm going to be doing any serious heavy-duty portrait sessions with the Maxxum 7 (or at all for that matter). Thanks! and thanks!!

$60 for a 3600HS/D ?
That sounds expensive , even for Canada ! They sell for £15-£20 over here .
The UK £ is about a US $ , I'm not sure about the Canadian $ .
Have you had a look on ebay and click on the "sold items" filter ? This will show you what they have actually been selling for rather than just what they are being listed at .

I'd keep looking . It depends on what and how you want to use the flash for , as all the Minolta iISO hot shoed flashes are fully compatible with the Dynax 7 .

If all you wanted was TTL flash control , with the flash staying mounted on the camera , the Minolta 5200i would do the job .
No off camera flash , no HHS . Just a good sized flash that is hotshoe mounted .
Costs next to nothing .

If you want flash that works on camera or off camera wirelessly , controlled by the Dynax 7's flash with full TTL metering ,the Minolta 5400xi or 3500xi flashes will do you .
Still very cheap flashes . You might even pick up the smaller 3500xi for less than $10 .

The next model up give you Wireless TTL flash control , as above , but also add high speed synch ( HSS ) . They allow you to to fire the shutter faster than usual , 1/12000 second on the Dynax 9xi , and still have full flash coverage .
This is typically used on sunny days with fast lenses where you need a bit of fill in flash where a fast shutter speed would otherwise result in over exposure .
This flash is the Minolta 5400HS .
All the above flashes are very cheap as they only function correctly and with TTL with film cameras , they have limited use on digital .

The Minolta 3600HS/D , Minolta 5600HS/D and rebadged as the Sony HVL-F36AM & HVL-F56AM are the dearest just because they work fully with digital cameras .

If you want to experiment with TTL flash with the Dynax 7 , save your money and get the earlier models . If you want only one flash that can be used on either film or digital , get the later Minolta HS/D model or Sony version .
If you want to experiment with multiple off camera flash with the film camera only , then some of the xi flashes would be the cheap option . If you get the larger model to mount on the camera you then have the option of playing around with ratio flash control , where different flashes fire with different outputs .

For the specifications of what gear Minolta ( and Sony ) made , see here ;
https://mhohner.de/sony-minolta/flashes.php?shoe=2

For lot's of information on Minolta's wireless flash control , a nice article on the Dynax 7 , look at the Friedman archives ;

https://www.friedmanarchives.com/?s=flash+control

There's a lot more than just that article on his website .
That should give you somewhere to start .

There has been no further progress in getting modern flashes to work with film cameras as as time passes they just become more distant technology .
Minolta film cameras ceased to be produced in 2006 , 16 years ago .
Third party flashes designed for the new Sony multi interface shoe aren't even designed to fit on a film camera , let alone communicate with one .
Even Sony dropped compatibility with TTL flash for film cameras years ago , as they never made a film camera !


If you want a flash to work on your Maxxum 7 , the cheapest way of doing it is to forget adapters and just buy something like the Minolta 5400HS or Minolta 5600HS/D .
Both support TTL metering , high speed sync and wireless flash control .
The Minolta 5600HS/D would also work on your Sony a9 via the adapter .

P.S , welcome to the forum .

Noticing the Sony HVL-F60M claims to work with the Dynax 7 film camera in TTL and HSS, and seeing the ADP-AMA available at Amazon Warehouse for £16, I was inquisitive enough to try.

F stop reads as f/1.0 on flash and the flash keeps turning off and rebooting. The HSS indicator does come on in the camera so it might fire manually and do HSS. TTL is the main thing I was hoping for as it removes the need for a dedicated flash meter and takes any guess work out of using manual.

TLDR - doesn't work.

addy landzaat wrote: There is some more info on the 5400 HS on the Mhohner site. His flash compendium might also be helpful. You can use the 5400 HS in manual mode. The Vivitar 283/285 aren't easier and have considerably less power. (A common typo is 5400HS(D), but no such flash exists, just a 5600HS(D))

Quite right, thanks for the correction!
Agree the Vivitars are very dated and limited in capability, but they do have aperture auto so you can get a consistent flash on or off camera without knowing the flash-subject distance, and you can adjust the exposure with camera aperture. Does the 5400HS have that mode?

I think the 5400HS is an analogue flash, so it should work fully on the Dynax 7 (which can use analogue or digital flashes) directly, but not the 7D or indeed any Sony digital SLR/SLT/E-mount which are all digital. The 5400HS(D) wil do analogue or digital.

If you mean work with the Godex remote, I don't know; does the 5400S give you anything clever with the Godex on your E-mount? I'm a little surprised if it does - I'd expect you to get basic flash only.

I could be wrong, but I think the foot converter just converts the foot mechanically and brings the right connections out, but doesn't do anything clever.

So, no, don't expect the 5400HS to do HSS or TTL with any digital camera whatever the electronics you mput between them - they talk in different languages. That's why the HS models are cheap and the HS(D)s are not!

Ironically, you *might* be better off with an older generation flash like the Vivitar 283/285, which at least can do auto on their own on or off the camera and should still do that with a radio trigger.

Come to think of it, I suppose there's a roughly equal chance that the Godox can be wirelessly controlled by the pop-up flash of the Dynax 7 without needing the Godox transmitter. The flash is stated to be compatible with Sony's optical wireless system (along with its own radio communication system). Depending on the company's thoroughness in reverse engineering, that might carry over to Minolta film cameras as well.

It's impossible to answer the,question without being clear if you own a E-mount A7, or a Dynax 7D, as they have different flash shoes.

It's also impossible until you clarify whether you want to use your Minolta or Godox flash with the camera, and in what way (on camera, has, off camera).

Sorry.