Godox flash trigger on an A99ii

Hi again Miranda:

Have discovered that my old Minolta flash (though bulky) acts as a good optical trigger on the a9 when in 'Low' mode. Lets just say it has its own eccentricities, but can be handled best that way.
It also prevents the pre-flash trigger on the a65, and works as a low key flash unit (but a slightly better light than the pop-up).

Have also bought the Godox flash you mentioned, through eBay which won't break the bank (a nice birthday present to myself !).

Thanks again for all your tips. They've been very useful

best wishes,
Bridget

Had a play around today at home (whilst storm Ciara rages outside).

Have determined that the Minolta 3500xi isn't very powerful off-camera (havent used it for a very long time as on camera its difficult to control).
I used it with an inexpensive slave.
The pop up flash on my Sony a65 will trigger both the HVL 56AM (as per Sony compatibility chart) and the Minolta.

For the a99 (which I use for stock work), then a cable would be the thing. Cumbersome, but for the type of family portrait work I do ( for presents only), I can work with it, and that flash would trigger the Minolta (or I just use a stand alone light source).

So basically I don't need the transmitter/receiver set.
I'm a bit nervous that it would actually work with what I have - it may be useful on the a99 if I should feel I'm ever good enough to charge for portraits.

Thanks everyone for your input.
I learbned something, and it gave me the push on this wet day to play around a little.

Thanks also Minolta_mutley

I'll bear all that in mind and do some further research.

Flash compatibility is a bit of a complex thing (understatement! )
MHohner's guide is pretty much reckoned to the be the bible on SOny/Minolta gear but radio wireless has introduced a whole nnew range of incompatibilities.

If you are looking for really cheap solutions, I can recommend a couple.
There are quite a lot of older flashguns that have manually settable power, and even the fixed-power ones can be used if you move them to and fro to get the relative light output you need. They can be triggered by cheap opto slaves BUT on many Sony cameras you cannot turn off the pre-trig flash and that triggers the slave before the shutter opens. You need a shoe-compatible master flash on your camera that can be set to simple non-auto flash. The little Meike 320 is one that does that.

The other approach which is still workable for a multi-flash setup is to use the old Vivitar 283/285 type flashes as slaves, which were self-auto, that is you set them to an aperture and they turned off the flash themselves when the light reached the correct amount. These can also be moved about to fine-tune the light output

Having said all that, the Godox TT350 and transmitter is not that expensive and much more capable.

There's no problem with the slaves. They work very well with the pop-up flash on my old camera.

But the camera I have been using for stock work doesn't have a pop-up flash, so I was trying to devise an inexpensive way of triggering the flashes I have.

However, I've pretty much talked myself out of this now, as I probably wouldn't use it much.
It's difficult to justify the expense and I could possibly get by with a light.

Thank you for that.
I do have a Sony converter which I have used at times on the HLV 56 flash and Sony a99ii.

I've had a look on eBay, and the Phottix Odin sets seem more expensive than the Godox.

The slave works when any flash unit is used (on camera), so don't see why it won't activate when triggered by a stand-alone flash which is itself triggered from a transmitter. It will just mean I can't set the power, but I'm sure there are ways around that.
I doubt I'll use the set much after its initial planned use, so pointless spending a lot of money ...

I use the camera far more without flash, so in the end I can always stick with that and an off camera light ...

Anyway, all food for thought. I confess to having thoroughly confused myself, so will let it go to mull over now :)

Thank you everybody.

Thank you - sadly its all a matter of cost - its a great idea to do as you suggest, but cost-wise I cannot afford to spend that amount of money.

I am looking at buying a compatible transmitter and receiver separately over a couple of months through eBay or some other outlet.