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I got this flash because I had taken the role of team photographer for my boys high school football team. At the beginning of the season, before I had this flash, I was able to get good pictures with my 300mm lens because there was still plenty of light. As the months went by, it was dark by seven o'clock, with just the stadium lights, and my pictures were now soft or blurry. The season had ended by the time I got this flash, but in tests with the 300mm lens on my Sony A100, I'm sure my sports photography will take a big leap forward next season. When I first got this 5600hs flash I was in a panic because there is so much to it, and, try as i might, I couldn't locate a user's manual now that Minolta has been absorbed by Sony. However, there is a Sony manual available for their top of the line flash that is essentially this flash with one or two additional minor functions. Once I downloaded that Sony manual from the Sony support site I was able to begin to develop an understanding of this 5600hs flash. I suggest you get the manual, although you can put it on auto as soon as you get it and start taking nice pictures. I like to do all kinds of photography, portraits, macro, nature, animals, parties, etc., and this flash has blown me away with it's versatility. The wireless function will help give you some interesting shadows in your portraits. However, in order for the flash to fire wirelessly, the built-in flash on the camera has to fire, too, which puts a front-on flash in addition to the 5600's wireless flash. I also used it to take some close-up pictures of a lens to sell here on ebay, and the thru-the-lens exposure with this flash seems to insure perfectly exposed pictures. The flash will also throw an infared beam in a very dark room to let the lens do it's auto focusing. You can also take a flash picture of something 30+ yards away. The flash senses the MM of the lens you have on the camera, where you are focused, and adjusts appropriately. The manual for this flash is about 60 pages. This 5600hs is truly a computer that flashes! It is capable of amazing things that continue to reveal themselves to me the more I play with it. Another thing to note is that the heft of the camera, lens and 5600 flash together is quite a load. If you are wanting to walk around the city or the zoo pointing and shooting all day, you better start lifting weights now to get ready for it. I would say that you have to be a professional or really have to be serious about your photography to be willing to lug this gear around. I'm not a professional, but find creative expression through photography and don't mind managing the equipment. Your motivation for photographing needs to be high to use this flash in the field, otherwise, you may find yourself leaving it behind as too cumbersome. It's a tool in your camera bag that will allow you to get that great picture that you really couldn't without it. It seems to be a tough little unit. The day mine arrived, it slipped through my fingers, and I dropped it from waist high onto the tile floor. The plastic housing was scuffed a bit, but the fall had no effect on function. I tried for a month or so to find the best deal on one of these, and eventually realized that I would have to pay something over $200. I am very satisfied with this flash to say the least. Thanks for this opportunity to review this flash for you. There are lots of other reviews online that seem to be all positive.Read full review
I've been shooting with the 5600HS(D) for over a decade now and it is a great flash unit for Minolta and Sony DSLR/DSLT/mirrorless cameras. The flash's GN is 56meters, refreshes fairly quickly with fresh batteries(4-5 seconds), supports an external high voltage battery pack for faster refresh(~1 second). Though lots of full power pops in a short period of time will overheat the unit. At less than full strength, I've been able to get flash pops at 5 fps using an external battery pack. Very nice! The unit supports Minolta/Sony's wireless(IR) flash protocol, so you can control multiple flashes via line of sight. I've since switched to using Phottix Odin RF triggers, which supports the Sony/Minolta flash control protocol, allowing you to shoot TTL, remote manual control, and HSS (High speed sync). Speaking of High Speed Sync, you can sync up to 1/4000-1/8000 shutter speeds with HSS mode, though the flash power is greatly reduced. Stopping motion or overpowering the sun makes for great photography with this flash. You can continue to use this unit with the new Multi-IO ISO shoes with an adapter. Rock on!Read full review
Great flash unit. purchased this as a second flash. Already had one of these, and like the flash activated feature. Lots of auto or manual controls, recycles quickly.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Just received a used 5600 HS D on bid from eBay ... Overall, it looks promissing. This is a somewhat complicated flash unit: More so than I knew! If you search Google you can find a copy of the owner's manual for it. If your (used) unit does not come with a manual, I STRONGLY recommend you download a copy in order to get full benefit from this flash's available features. This is going to take me some time to learn and use to good advantage ... But that's a GOOD thing! (I like learning new things and gaining capabilities I didn't have before!!!)
The Minolta 5600 HS D is a top quality system flash. From the simple, mount-on-camera and shoot in full auto mode to the more complicated strobe effect and wireless flash with multiple off-camera flashes, the 5600 HS D does it all. Find a manual online to see if it meets your camera requirements.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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