Which Hot shoe adaptor?

SnEm

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Hi,

I'm about to buy a Yongnuo YN 560 III for my Sony A57. I don't need anything fancy, still need to learn how to use a flash, that's why I thought of this model.
I know absolutely nothing about flash, but read I'll need a hot shoe adaptor, can someone tell me what model I should buy?
Choice is sooo large not sure which one to buy?

Thx,
 
I wouldn't go for that flash personally. The reason is that it is not TTL. So you will always be having to set the power of the flash manually. Of course it can be done but in reality it will be a right pain in the proverbial. Especially if you want to take family snapshots where speed is more important than correct lighting.

Instead I'd suggest if you want a basic first flash that won't break the bank then hop on eBay and look for a used Jessops 360AFD Sony mount. This is a TTL flash that you can still use in manual mode. It's a good starter flash, takes a bit longer to charge to full power (5-6 secs) rather than the 3 seconds of say a Nikon flash but you can pick them up for about £30-40. New ones from Jessops last time I looked were about £80 so if warranty is important to you then that's an idea.

If you can push your budget up slightly more then I'd recommend the Sony HVL-F42AM. It's not got an LCD panel but other than that it's dead easy to use and goes for around £100 used on eBay. It also supports HSS.

You may also want to check out the Metz 44AF-1 or 50AF1. Back when I was a Sony shooter my fave was the HVL-F42AM closely followed by the Metz. The Jessops was a good starter/learner flash though.

Plus with the above flashes you won't need to mess about with hot shoe adapters either.
 
what you have to get is a sony compatible flash not sure if yongnuo do one
 
If you are happy with manual flash, then you want to get the 560-II, which is available with the (old) Sony / Minolta hot shoe - for a manual flash this is an excellent choice, but it does lack the built in radio trigger that the 560-III has.

As Gadgeteer suggests, if you want to use a flash in an automatic mode (TTL) you will need a more different flashgun. The closest to the Yongnuo YN 560 II in terms of power, etc, would be the Sony 56 (or Minolta 5600 HS(d), they are the same unit, Sony re-badged the Minolta one when they took over the Minolta system) - problem is, you are looking in the region of £150 second hand for one of these.

The Sony 42 is a nice unit BUT if you want to later use it off-camera (using radio triggers) it will auto power off after a short period, and is a pain to then get switched on again - the other Sony flashes will re-activate more easily.
The cheapest Sony / Minolta flash is the 3600 HS(d), but that lacks manual control or swivel of the head.
 
yong nuo do a good sony hotshoe adapter, and it has pc sync connector, so useful for old cameras too :-)
 
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