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on Jul 3, 2021 0:26:57 GMT
Posted: Jul 3, 2021 0:26:57 GMT
Just arrived -- a Yashica CS-14 and a Sunpak Auto 101 -- that I nabbed on EBAY for $5, for both.
After cleaning up the battery chambers, they both fire up fine -- although the ready light on the Sunpak does not seem to work.
That's the good news.
I got these hoping that I could find a small flash that has a hot shoe contact on the left side of the flash shoe (looking at it from the rear) -- so that I could use it on the hot shoe of the Minolta MG-s camera that has a hot shoe contact ONLY on the left side of the flash shoe. FYI, most flashes and cameras have contacts on BOTH sides of the flash shoe -- but not small flashes, and not all cameras.
The Vivitar 50 and the Yashica CS-10 and nice and small, but have a hot shoe contact ONLY on the right side of the flash shoe.
Turns out that the Yashica CS-14 and a Sunpak Auto 10 have a hot shoe contact ONLY on the right side of the flash shoe, as well.
That's the bad news.
So it's back to the drawing board.
But it's not too bad. The Yashica CS-14 and a Sunpak Auto 10 are very nice, compact, 2AA units. They have the same GN, and both have hot shoes. The larger Sunpak adds an auto-mode and a built-in PC cord to boot!
The search goes on.
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Status: Long, long time Contax and Yashica user; glad to be here and hope to contribute.
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on Jul 3, 2021 9:29:25 GMT
Posted: Jul 3, 2021 9:29:25 GMT
Hi xkaes , Nice to have those two little flash units working... I'm very curious about your MG-S - where is your hot shoe? On mine, it came with the AG-1 bulb flash (MG-S Flash Gun) which connected directly into the side of the camera and, because I had so many flash cubes, I also bought the Cube Gun which fitted in the same way. Minolta did make a cold-shoe adapter for the 16 series for use with the Minolta Duofit S flash which connected via a sync-cord (it also had a single-pin hot shoe) but I never managed to buy one back in the day. Do you know when it was that Minolta made the hot shoe adapter for the MG-S?
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on Jul 3, 2021 12:43:50 GMT
Last Edit: Jul 3, 2021 12:44:23 GMT by lumiworx
I've never popped open just the shoe section of a flash, but is it possible to remove or in some way disable the contact on the side that shouldn't be 'hot' for Minolta use? If the foot can't be separated to adjust connectivity, could a plastic shim get inserted in either the hot shoe of the camera, or into the contact 'slot' of the foot to cover the exposed contact?
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on Jul 3, 2021 13:04:09 GMT
Last Edit: Jul 3, 2021 13:29:47 GMT by xkaes
The Minolta MG and the MG-s are very different. Minolta made three add-on, flash adapters for the MG-s. One if for flash cubes, one for flash bulbs, and one has a hot shoe for electronic flash -- but the flash contact is only on the LEFT-hand side (when looked at from the back). And while 99% of all electronic flashes have contacts on BOTH sides of the shoe, for some odd reason all of the small flashes I have seen (except for the Minolta 20 -- which is only smallish) always have only a single flash shoe contact on the RIGHT-hand side. Fortunately, the Minolta MG-s hot shoe adapter has a PC cord connection in addition to the hot shoe -- since most flashes at that point did not have hot shoes. What I had been planning on doing was to add a short PC cord to the Vivitar 50 and the Yashica CS-10, but since the Sunpak has a built-in PC cord, I can use it despite the shoe incompatibility. It's bigger than the Vivitar 50 and the Yashica CS-10, but is does have AUTO mode. I'll give it a try for now.
The hunt goes on!!!! Most really small flashes did not have PC cords -- just hot shoes with a contact on the right-hand side -- but I'll keep my eyes open for one.
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on Jul 3, 2021 20:32:48 GMT
Last Edit: Jul 3, 2021 23:19:49 GMT by xkaes
Here is a visual comparison. On the left (does not work), a Minolta MG-s with hot flash adapter and a Yashica CS-10 hot shoe only flash. On the right (works fine), a Minolta MG-s with hot flash adapter and a Sunpak Auto 101 hot shoe and PC contact flash.
BIG difference with a little camera. The Vivitar 50 is basically the same as the Yashica CS-10, but there are few (none?) flashes this small that have either a PC connection OR a hot shoe with a connect on the right side.
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on Jul 4, 2021 5:18:44 GMT
Posted: Jul 4, 2021 5:18:44 GMT
You need the Minolta Electroflash P.
PF
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on Jul 4, 2021 14:33:07 GMT
Posted: Jul 4, 2021 14:33:07 GMT
That's basically the same as the 3, C, and CP. Unfortunately hot shoe only. I'm going to check out the Electroflash 14, but I bet it lacks contacts on both side of the shoe AND a PC cord.
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on Jul 10, 2021 23:05:02 GMT
Posted: Jul 10, 2021 23:05:02 GMT
That's basically the same as the 3, C, and CP. Unfortunately hot shoe only. I'm going to check out the Electroflash 14, but I bet it lacks contacts on both side of the shoe AND a PC cord. Or you could get a Cold-to Hot Shoe adapter with a PC cord tail. BTW, the Minolta Electroflash 20 has contacts on both sides of the shoe (no PC cord).
PF
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on Jul 15, 2021 16:16:21 GMT
Posted: Jul 15, 2021 16:16:21 GMT
I haven't checked to see if my Flash Shoe adapters have contacts on both sides. My guess is that the cheaper ones don't, but I'll check it out.
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on Jul 27, 2021 14:15:14 GMT
Last Edit: Jul 27, 2021 15:36:40 GMT by xkaes
I finally got around to trying to disassemble my CS-10 -- so that I could attach a standard PC cord. The only screw I can find is inside the AA battery chamber. Removing the screw did not seem to aid is taking anything apart. That leaves me to conclude that the covers of the CS-10 are snapped together, but I don't see where. Anyone have a suggestion about getting this bugger apart. I could "man-handle" it, but I'd rather not.
The Vivitar 50 is very easy to take apart -- just three screws -- and it looks like that's what I'll have to do. The Vivitar 50 is somewhat larger than the CS-10, unfortunately, and I like the fact that the CS-10 uses a single AA battery. The Vivitar 50, also unfortunately, uses the less common J battery. These are still easy enough to find, and they pack a punch at 6v (vs 1.5v for the AA), but they cost about 20 times as much! So that's two strikes against the, otherwise gear, Vivitar.
But before I do anything, I'm going to try to rig an electrically conductive bit of tape/wire/metal around the shoe of the Vivitar 50 and CS-10 to see if I can get it to make contact with the MG-s hot shoe adapter contact -- which is on the opposite side. Sounds crazy, but it just might work.
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on Jul 29, 2021 22:39:39 GMT
Posted: Jul 29, 2021 22:39:39 GMT
I just discovered the Vivitar "10" flashes. I should not be surprised, given the number of flash units that Vivitar made. There were at least three of them -- the EF10 and the EZ10 (which came in two versions). They are small, strictly manual exposure flashes, and appear to all be TWO AA flashes, and I assume the "10" means the same thing as it does with the Yashica CS-10, mainly power. They are not as hard to find as the Vivitar 50 and 51 -- which both use the J battery and have the shoe contact on the "wrong" side for my purposes. At least one of the Vivitar "10" flashes has the SINGLE shoe contact on the "right" side for my needs, but unfortunately they are not as small as the Yashica CS-10 or the Vivitar 50/51. I'll explore further, but I'm optimistic -- I'd like to avoid flash surgery if I can.
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on Aug 18, 2021 21:52:54 GMT
Last Edit: Aug 19, 2021 22:02:56 GMT by xkaes
I've found a solution to my problem -- the Nissin 300HA. It's another small flash -- not as small as the Yashica CS-10 or the Vivitar 50, unfortunately. Like those two -- and all the other small flashes I have examined, there is only one flash contact on the side of the shoe, and they are all on the WRONG side. Same with the Nissin 300HA. However, the Nissin has a PC cord connection -- using the same PC cord style as the Vivitar 283, so I can connect it to the PC cord connection on the Minolta MG-s flash adapter. The Nissin 300HA uses two AA batteries, so despite the extra size, it is more powerful -- AND offers an Auto mode. They also make a 300H, which is the same, but without an Auto mode. The picture at: shows these flashes along with an Olympus T20 -- very much like the Nissin 300HA. It uses two AA, but has contacts on BOTH side of the flash shoe -- but only provides Auto mode on Olympus cameras. So with the Minolta MG-s and the Nissin, I have auto-exposure in existing light AND auto-exposure when using a flash. And with my Yashica Y16 and the Nissin, I have manual-exposure in existing light AND auto-exposure when using a flash. It's more than I wanted and more than I need -- and perhaps the best I can hope for.
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on Aug 22, 2021 16:52:37 GMT
Posted: Aug 22, 2021 16:52:37 GMT
I just discovered that the Nissin 300HA was also sold as the Sears Thyristor Auto Flash #330.80250. Probably harder to find than the Nissin, but probably cheaper!
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on Aug 25, 2021 20:50:16 GMT
Last Edit: Aug 25, 2021 20:53:27 GMT by lumiworx
Digging through some 'bits-n-pieces', I ran across a flash that has a one-sided contact - left side, looking at the flash face - on a single-pin hot shoe, takes one AAA battery, and it's a little bit bigger than a Zippo lighter. It doesn't work, but it's an Osram Sunnyboy. According to this review, it's a GN 12, so it's probably right in the same ballpark in size and power as the Vivitar 50, CS-10, etc., and looks to be $20 or less on ebay. No PC cord plugins at all though.
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on Aug 26, 2021 0:52:09 GMT
Posted: Aug 26, 2021 0:52:09 GMT
Thanks. That's the same flash as the Unomat MiniTOP. I had ordered a Unomat, for $5 from China, but the seller cancelled the purchase. I had no idea where the flash contact was, but your info confirms my suspicion. For some reason all of these small flashes put the side contact on the wrong side from the Minolta flash adapter. It is just a chance coincidence? So I'll add SUNNYBOY to my search list.
One nice thing about EBAY searches is that when you search for an item, on the bottom of the search pages, it shows items that other people -- who searched for my item -- also looked at. Sometimes this shows items that I did not know about. For example, if I search for Unomat, it might display SUNNYBOY.
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