I have had 4 5400 HS and xi flashes in the past years that have always worked great. Is it worth upgrading to the new 5600 series flash? Has anyone seen any drawbacks?

-- William (Billy) John Hinamon (hinamon@hotmail.com), February 20, 2001

Answers

I have both. I have just obtained the 5600HS D because I bought the Minolta Dimage 7 digital camera, and the 5400 does not work with the D7. I have not used the 5600 with my Minolta film cameras (Max 9 and XTsi). Just reading the instruction manual, I do not see any major feature that is not present with the 5400 HS.

One of the things I want to try: using a Minolta film camera with built in flash, can I use Wireless Flash and expect both the 5400 and the 5600 to respond to the wireless signal, when both are set up?

-- Joseph A Worrall MD RDMS (jworrall@alaska.net), August 31, 2001.

The major difference between the 5400HS and 5600HSD is the "D". If you own D-type lenses and a camera body that supports it, you might consider the 5600. Otherwise, don't bother. You'll end up with no more than the 5400's functions.

-- Ben (ben@somenet.com), August 28, 2002.