New to Me Minolta Autocord

[Dan Daniel]

My question had to do with why the pins on so many of my Autocords are positioned towards the rear when every flash I've seen would then be pointed in the wrong direction.

Not certain, but the YashicaMat 124G has a flash shoe with the pin to the rear, also. Maybe there is something about how people push or pull the flash on a TLR that leads to a rear pin preventing removal by accident?

 

[John Wiegerink]

Precisely.



Not the point of my question. From my post #119: "Of course these cold shoes can be turned around by removing the four little screws."

My question had to do with why the pins on so many of my Autocords are positioned towards the rear when every flash I've seen would then be pointed in the wrong direction.

I believe there never was a modern electronic flash made for the Autocords. There were four fan flash bulb units made for the Autocord cameras, but no new electronic flash units after that. Those fan flash units all slid in from the front. In 1956 the fan flash Mod. Junior B.C.. In 1962 came the Deluxe. In 1965 the Deluxe II was brought out. 1969 saw the Deluxe III, which was the last dedicated Minolta Autocord flash. At least I "think" it was the last Autocord dedicated flash?

 

[MattKing]

My question had to do with why the pins on so many of my Autocords are positioned towards the rear when every flash I've seen would then be pointed in the wrong direction.

As the camera doesn't have a hot shoe, the shoe probably was designed for accessories - not just flashes - that didn't have a hot shoe trigger.
Without a hot shoe trigger, the positioning of the mount is less critical, and there are advantages to having a mount that accessories slide into from the front, rather than the rear.

The hot shoe triggered flash is a fairly modern invention.

 

[BrianShaw]

Plus, putting a strobe on an accessory shoe might short the flash contacts rendering it impotent. A piece of tape as insulator can renew its vigor, though.

 

[eli griggs]

I use a SunPac auto 321 flash unit on my Autocord, as it's small, powerful and not only does the show mount allow the rotation up and down of the unit, but the flash tube is also adjustable with 180° of travel, side to side.

It has a guide number of 60 marked on it, 25 asa to 400, computed to 40 to 160, and three power levels, including manual and a sliding index.

A small fixed sync cord and an AC port, for a power supply, which I do not currently have and a single, hot shoe contact point.

Generally, I'm buy/scrounge only Vivitar 283, 285 units, but SunPac is also a maker I like, especially for flash units like this.

If I found one at the right time/price, I'd like to have a second unit for a 45° copying capacity.

If I were making a recommendation, I'd most likely suggest this small unit for any TLR, the Minolta Autocord and Sawyer's mk IV, being my two shooters.

 

[John Wiegerink]

I use a SunPac auto 321 flash unit on my Autocord, as it's small, powerful and not only does the show mount allow the rotation up and down of the unit, but the flash tube is also adjustable with 180° of travel, side to side.

It has a guide number of 60 marked on it, 25 asa to 400, computed to 40 to 160, and three power levels, including manual and a sliding index.

A small fixed sync cord and an AC port, for a power supply, which I do not currently have and a single, hot shoe contact point.

Generally, I'm buy/scrounge only Vivitar 283, 285 units, but SunPac is also a maker I like, especially for flash units like this.

If I found one at the right time/price, I'd like to have a second unit for a 45° copying capacity.

If I were making a recommendation, I'd most likely suggest this small unit for any TLR, the Minolta Autocord and Sawyer's mk IV, being my two shooters.

The Sunpak 321is a very good little flash. I had one for years and it never failed me. I now prefer, if I have to, the Vivitar HV285 flash units. I do still have my Sunpak 555 potato masher flash from my wedding days. The Sunpak 555 was a great flash unit. I think any small Vivitar or Sunpak unit would be fine for the Autocord. I'd choose a unit like Nokton88 shows, which is similar in design to your Sunpak 321.

 

[Nokton48]

Kodak XX 120 D23 1:1 Minolta Autocord TLR by Nokton48, on Flickr

First rolls freshly developed Eastman Double-X XX 120 in Minolta Autocord twin lens reflex 6x6. D23 1:1 JOBO Multitank 5 (six roll capacity) Unicolor Uniroller. 12 minutes at 68F. Beefy looking negatives as I am used to with 35mm XX. These will all be easy to print with the usually XX qualities but in the superior larger format. Bravo to the Creator of this! More coming I like this film

Minolta Electroflash 1 (Minolta SRT Strobe) EI 100 YG Filter