Cord to connect Minolta Spotmeter F to Minolta 5600 HS (D) flash?

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.

Thanks.

Dave

 

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.

 

Arrrrrrrrrrrrg! I was afraid of this. I've contacted 3 retailers -
all supposedly Minolta dealers - and they couldn't answer the
question.

 

Cameras have become complex as systems and few store employees
know more than what is printed on the brochure ... if that.

The Minolta Maxxum system is proprietary and strange and does not
mix well with studio lighting setups. (I use the maxxum 9 and it
does both well but not concurrently...

Cheers,
Alan

 

Just short two of them. At least that's the way with 5400HS and earlier,
and I'd guess it should work with D flashes too? Otherwise: try to short
out the two pins closest to the small plastic "guide" inside the jack that
takes the extension cables. That should fire the flash, too.