i bought the new sony dslr-a100, the alpha 100

Joined: 25 Jul 2006 Posts: 6 Location: São Paulo, Brazil

hi friends! i'm looking for help

i have bought a new alpha 100 from sony, for sure i know all the story of konica-minolta went out of business and sold its camera business to sony, that's why exactly i bought it, i'm the owner of a whole set of accessories of an old 35mm film minolta maxxum 7000

my intention was to use all these accessories with the new digital body, ok, perfectly, everything seems to go smoothly, all my old autofocus zoom lenses work ok, and some other things of my paraphernalia

my question is if someone is able to help me with my external flash, it is very similar, seems to be suitable but has differences in the shoe size

the new accessory shoe has the same 4 contacts as the old flash, the same pattern of contacts, but the new shoe is smaller in size generally speaking, the 4 contacts are smaller and the distances among them are smaller, it's something of less of 1mm's differences, but i cant mount the flash in the shoe, i was formerly told that this match is a proprietary design, exclusive of the brand/make, so any dedicated old flash would perfectly work, but they dont fit

what is surprising is that everything appears to be exactly of the same technology, both pieces of equipment, but they dont match one to the other because of a difference in size

since my old flash is in the most perfect state of maintenance, working 100% ok, i intended and actually want to take advantage of using it, i guess i need an adaptor if it were to exist

the complete new family of accessories of these camera has an 'external shoe for other accesories', but i imagine that resolves nothing else

someone to give an idea? thank you very much in advance!!

is there some sony alpha 100 owner?

Posted: Sat Sep 30, 2006 5:07 pm

Sorry, I just now noticed your thread.

As you found out, you can't use the old flash with your new A100. Sony has 2 new flashes specifically designed for it, and I know that Sunpack also has a flash that will work with it that's much cheaper. (Do a search on Sunpack's site and check their compatability chart first before you buy.)

Joined: 05 Oct 2004 Posts: 565 Location: Toronto

The new Sony flashes are rebadged Minolta 3600 and 5600 flashes. Sony doesn't guarantee that the 3600 and 5600 will work, but they do say that it should. The 1200 and 2400 macro flashes should work as well.

The older Minolta flashes are said to be incompatible.