Confused on Sony Alpha and Home Studio set-up

Hello,

I recently purchased a Jessops external flash home studio system for
use with my Sony Alpha. The master flash head connects via a sync
cable, but the only connector that Jessops had was a "Minolta
dynax" hotshoe adaptor. This should have worked, as the Dynax is
compatible with the Sony Alpha.

However, when I connect it all, the camera does not seem to recognise
the flash unit.

The flash heads (master and slave) fire, but the camera does not show a
flash icon in the view finder. Also, it is not setting the exposure
for the flash, which means that I am going to always have to manually
set the exposure. If I don't do this, the exposure is trying to set
(in auto mode) for a 6 second exposure so everything is very badly over
exposed.

Is this correct? I would have thought that it should recognise that
the flash is charged, and therefore set the exposure automatically. Or
am I asking too much. I am new to home studio/portrait so getting my
feet wet.

Jaffa

On Sat, 02 Dec 2006 09:50:53 -0800, JaffaB wrote:

Hello,

I recently purchased a Jessops external flash home studio system for
use with my Sony Alpha. The master flash head connects via a sync
cable, but the only connector that Jessops had was a "Minolta
dynax" hotshoe adaptor. This should have worked, as the Dynax is
compatible with the Sony Alpha.

However, when I connect it all, the camera does not seem to recognise
the flash unit.

The flash heads (master and slave) fire, but the camera does not show a
flash icon in the view finder. Also, it is not setting the exposure
for the flash, which means that I am going to always have to manually
set the exposure. If I don't do this, the exposure is trying to set
(in auto mode) for a 6 second exposure so everything is very badly over
exposed.

Is this correct? I would have thought that it should recognise that
the flash is charged, and therefore set the exposure automatically. Or
am I asking too much. I am new to home studio/portrait so getting my
feet wet.

If the flash is not designed specifically to work with that brand of
camera it's not going to work with through-the-lens flash metering, you
need to set the aperture and shutter speed manually in accordance with the
output of the flash. A flash meter will help a good deal in this, but you
can do it without one using trial and error and the histogram.

--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

"JaffaB" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hello,

I recently purchased a Jessops external flash home studio system for
use with my Sony Alpha. The master flash head connects via a sync
cable, but the only connector that Jessops had was a "Minolta
dynax" hotshoe adaptor. This should have worked, as the Dynax is
compatible with the Sony Alpha.

However, when I connect it all, the camera does not seem to recognise
the flash unit.

The flash heads (master and slave) fire, but the camera does not show a
flash icon in the view finder. Also, it is not setting the exposure
for the flash, which means that I am going to always have to manually
set the exposure. If I don't do this, the exposure is trying to set
(in auto mode) for a 6 second exposure so everything is very badly over
exposed.

Is this correct? I would have thought that it should recognise that
the flash is charged, and therefore set the exposure automatically. Or
am I asking too much. I am new to home studio/portrait so getting my
feet wet.

Jaffa

If you are talking about a set of strobes, there won't be a flash indicator
in the viewfinder, nor will it automatically set the exposure. The camera
will set the exposure for the ambient light, not the light the strobes put
out. You need a flash meter to read the strobes, and set the exposure
manually. The hotshoe adaptor only fires the strobes, it doesn't set the
strobes. Your salesman at the store should have explained this, if you
indicated to him your lack of experience.

--
Skip Middleton
www.shadowcatcherimagery.com
www.pbase.com/skipm

In article . com,
"JaffaB" wrote:

I recently purchased a Jessops external flash home studio system for
use with my Sony Alpha. The master flash head connects via a sync
cable, but the only connector that Jessops had was a "Minolta
dynax" hotshoe adaptor. This should have worked, as the Dynax is
compatible with the Sony Alpha.

However, when I connect it all, the camera does not seem to recognise
the flash unit.

The flash heads (master and slave) fire, but the camera does not show a
flash icon in the view finder. Also, it is not setting the exposure
for the flash, which means that I am going to always have to manually
set the exposure. If I don't do this, the exposure is trying to set
(in auto mode) for a 6 second exposure so everything is very badly over
exposed.

Jaffa-

This sounds like my using an old Minolta 5400xi flash with the Sony
Alpha. It turns out that Minolta made a change in their TTL system,
even before the digital bodies came out. If you were sold the Jessops
specifically for TTL use with the Alpha, they may have sold you the
wrong one.

I learned about it the hard way, trying to use the old flash at a party.
Later I purchased a Minolta flash that has the new TTL system, and it
works perfectly with the Alpha. Apparently the Sony flash for the Alpha
is a rebranded version of my new Minolta flash.

If your Jessops has its own photocell, it can be used in an automatic
mode by manually setting your Alpha for the necessary f/stop, making
sure your shutter speed doesn't exceed the X-sync speed. Otherwise you
may need to go all-manual with both flash and camera.

Fred