Owner`s manual

4.3. SHORT SUMMARY ON USING WIRELESS FLASH 30
As misleading as Minolta’s documentation is, you do NOT need to buy the wireless IR flash con-
troller in order to control more than one off-camera flash! Your built-in flash can do this unaided.
Just put all of your off-camera flashes on automatic and aim them at the subject, and during exposure
the camera’s built-in flash will send the “All Off” command whenever it detects that enough light has
hit the film – regardless of which flash (or combination of flashes) produced the light.
Armed with this knowledge you can also set up 1:3, 1:6, or 1:Anything flash ratios just by changing
the flash-to-subject distances, and the camera will send the ”all off” signal when the light is sufficient
(usually this will be the light from the closest flash - the flash that is further away will be turned off
before it has a chance to put out enough light – hence the ratio.) This technique also means you can
achieve automatic flash ratios using HSS off-camera; you’re not tied to Minolta’s built-in 1/60
th
of
a second (1/30
th
of a second on the Maxxum 9) flash synch limitation.
When used as a controller, the built-in flash puts out a negligible amount of light as compared to what
is required for a proper exposure. That is why you can’t see any evidence of the on-camera flash being
present in any of the examples. To prove this to yourself, take a flash meter (in cumulative mode) and
measure the total amount of light coming out of the built-in flash, both when in wireless controller
mode and in ”normal” mode, and compare the results.
Since the Wireless IR flash controller will also PREVENT you from using off-camera high-speed synch
on the Dynax 7, there is no really good reason to buy one. I have found it to be very useful in only one
situation which is not very common: When using Minolta wireless flashes in manual mode (say, in a
studio situation), and you want to use a flashmeter to measure the light hitting the subject, the in-band
signals used to control the off-camera flashes will interfere with the handheld flashmeter’s reading. Since
most flashmeters employ IR filters near the sensor, using the wireless IR flash controller will completely
eliminate this problem.
I have found the 5600HS flashes to be excellent wireless studio flashes, by the way. Check out some
samples at my other website, http://www.NotYourOrdinary.com.
Great examples of using wireless flash can be found on Gary’s web site [18]. Similar experiences of other
people can be found here: [3, 15] and quite thorough guide by Gary Walts [15].