I mentioned a triple connector for Sony flashes in an earlier post. This info is kind of old I dug it out of one of my old blogs and edited it a bit. But this is the set up I use to fire multiple flashes with one wireless trigger.
First up you will need a FA-CC1AM (also available as a Minolta OC1100)
FA-CC1AM
You can connect the FA-CC1AM cable to one of 3 things
• the port in the side of your flash (Minolta 5600 HSD, Sony HVL-F56AM and HVL-F58AM all have this port already)
• a Sony FA-TC1AM (was sold as a Minolta TC 1000 and can still be found on e-bay)
• a Sony FA-CS1AM (was sold as a Minolta OC 1100 and can still be found on e-bay). With the FA-CS1AM you can attach any system flash that has the Sony/Minolta hotshoe but I only recommend those that have ADI (D) functions
FA-TC1AM
FA-CS1AM
Other than the flashes the only things you will need now are as many Sony FA-EC1AM (was sold as a Minolta Cable ex) as you can get. The cables go between the Triple connector (FA-TC1AM) and the flash or AF-CS1AM and can be added to one another as extensions.
FA-EC1AM
But why?
Once you have all the bits and pieces you can now connect any 3 ADI flashes to your Alpha with full TTL function and no need for a popup flash to fire them. For example you might want to use a Minolta Macro Ring Flash 1200 with 2 small 3600HSD flashes as fill or use a Sony HVL-F58AM as a key light and a sunpak pz40 as a fill flash. Basically it allows you to combine any 3 flashes and is very practical if one of these flashes doesn’t support the Sony wireless system.
Disadvantages
First off the cable set up isn’t cheap but can be found for ok prices on E-Bay second hand. Secondly its time consuming to set up and Gets very expensive if you want to have a grater distance between the flashes (but I’ll cover a solution for that latter).
The third problem is that Sony have changed the hot-shoe for all future cameras so you will need an adaptor for this system to work on cameras with an ISO shoe system.
I can only home Sony continue to support this system with the new hot shoe.
Hello Scott,
Any Idea what the pint schematic is corresponding to the MI / ISO shoe? specifically which ones would be the fire and ground pins?
I’ve been trying to find ways of converting a standard PC sync cable into this to trigger the strobes in a more economic way…
HI By accident I found the pin out is documented on wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi_Interface_Shoe
Pin Direction (shoe) Type Signal AAS SAT / (only SAT2) Comment
1 In Generic ID3 n/a n/a Hotshoe type identification (left-most pin, except for pin 23)
2 In Generic ID2 n/a ID2 Hotshoe type identification
3 In Generic ID1 n/a ID1 Hotshoe type identification
4 Supply (out) Microphone or EVF MIC_GND n/a MIC_GND Microphone ground (analog)
5 In / Out Microphone or EVF MIC_L / GVIF_SDATA_N n/a MIC_L / (GVIF_SDATA_N) Left microphone (analog), EVF
6 In / Out Microphone or EVF MIC_R / GVIF_SDATA_P n/a MIC_R / (GVIF_SDATA_P) Right microphone (analog), EVF
7 Supply (out) Power REG_GND GND REG_GND Logic ground – connected to pins 15, 23, 24 in camera
8 Out / Out GPS or WLAN GPS_PWR_CTRL / WLAN_SD_CLK n/a n/a
9 Out / Out GPS or WLAN GPS_CTS / WLAN_SD_D0 n/a n/a
10 In / Out GPS or WLAN GPS_RTS / WLAN_SD_D1 n/a n/a
11 Out / Out GPS or WLAN GPS_UART_TXD / WLAN_SD_D2 n/a n/a
12 In / Out GPS or WLAN GPS_UART_RXD / WLAN_SD_D3 n/a n/a
13 Supply (out) Power LOGIC_VDD LOGIC_VDD Switched, regulated low-power 3.15 V supply
14 In / Out / Out / Out Microphone or WLAN or audio MIC_C / WLAN_SD_CMD / SP_OUT / AUDIO_L n/a MIC_C Center microphone (analog), WLAN, ?, Left audio lineout (analog)
15 Supply (out) Power REG_GND GND REG_GND Logic ground – connected to pins 7, 23, 24 in camera
16 Out / Out / Out GPS or WLAN or audio XGPS_RST / XWLAN_RST / AUDIO_R n/a n/a GPS Reset, WLAN Reset, Right audio lineout (analog)
17 Supply (out) Power UNREG UNREG Switched, fused (1.6 A), unregulated battery power (battery plus, 6.1–8.4 V) against pin 21
18 Out / Out Flash or EVF F3 / EXT_EVF_SCK F3 F3 / (EXT_EVF_SCK)
19 InOut / Out Flash or EVF F2 / EXT_EVF_SI F2 F2 / (EXT_EVF_SI)
20 Out / Out Flash or EVF F1# / EXT_EVF_SO n/a F1# / (EXT_EVF_SO)
21 Supply (out) Power PGND PGND Power ground (battery minus) / on-camera detection (right-most pin, except for pin 24)
22 Open collector/Drain (out) Flash ISO_SHOE_X F1 n/a ISO shoe X sync (middle contact) – for low-voltage trigger circuits only
23 Power / Supply Flash ISO_SHOE_FG GND ISO shoe frame ground (left) – connected to pins 24, 7, 15 in camera
24 Power / Supply Flash ISO_SHOE_FG GND ISO shoe frame ground (right) – connected to pins 23, 7, 15 in camera