Speedlight compatability Question

[Captain IK]

I suspect this may be a stupid question however I need to ask it to put my mind to rest...at least on this topic.

I have a Minolta Auto 360 PX flash (speedlight) that I bought for my XD11 over twenty years ago. It still works perfectly.

The question is: Can I use this flash unit on my Nikon D60? Will it sync properly? Will damage occur to either the D60 or the flash unit?
I am scared to even mount it on the hot shoe for fear that it may cause some catastrophic electronic failure somewhere?

Please help so I can sleep tonight.

Thank you in advance.

 

[Captain IK]

Just wanted to bring this back to the top...hoping someone can help me out here.

Thanks

 

[andrew99]

The D60 can take up to 250V on the hotsoe, so as long as the flash is less than that, it should be ok. You can also get a safe sync to protect the camera.

 

[tsaraleksi]

I don't think that Minolta flashes will mount on Nikons, but you'd have to put it on there to see.

 

[Chris of Arabia]

I'm assuming that both the Minolta flash and the Nikon hotshoe are of the same basic physical design, so you should be able to mount one on top of the other. Excepting the central electrical contact, it's highly unlikely that the other contacts will align or even be assigned to the same role, so it maybe that you can get the Nikon to trigger the flash, as that's what the central contact is for, but it's highly improbable that you'll have any sort of control over the flash output, other than what you could set on the flash gun itself. Personally it's not the sort of thing I'd be willing to try myself.

That doesn't mean all hope is lost though. If you get yourself one of the Nikon flash units, you should be able to use the Minolta as extra off-camera lighting and trigger it through a slave eye.

 

[tsaraleksi]

I'm assuming that both the Minolta flash and the Nikon hotshoe are of the same basic physical design, so you should be able to mount one on top of the other. Excepting the central electrical contact, it's highly unlikely that the other contacts will align or even be assigned to the same role, so it maybe that you can get the Nikon to trigger the flash, as that's what the central contact is for, but it's highly improbable that you'll have any sort of control over the flash output, other than what you could set on the flash gun itself. Personally it's not the sort of thing I'd be willing to try myself.

Poking around on google image search seems to indicate that Minolta flashes have a rather different mount than Nikon or Canon, which means that they would be un-mountable all together.

 

[Captain IK]

The Minolta flash will physically fit the Nikon hotshoe. I tried it with all batteries removed to ensure there was no electronic damage.
2 of the 3 contacts on the flash appear to line up with the Nikon contacts.
However, maybe I'd better just bite the bullet and buy a Nikon speedlight. The SB 800 is apparently a good quality unit.

 

[andrew99]

You only need the center pin to fire the flash. All the other pins are for Nikon intelligent flashes (SB400/600/800/900) only...Your Minolta flash will have to be fired in manual mode (with the camera in manual mode also), which isn't that hard.

That said, I do love my SB600!

 

[Captain IK]

Thanks Andrew