I'm old school. I have a Pentax K-1000 and a Nikon FE and both have what I would call a "standard" hot shoe. I just bought my first Auto-Focus SLR, a Minolta Maxxum HTSi Plus and the hot shoe appears to be different. Is there a special type of flash that I need to buy to fit this kind of hot shoe? Is there an adaptor that would allow me to use my old flashes? It is my understanding that the pop-up flashes on these cameras are weak. Forgive me for being hopelessly behind the times. (I hear there is a new kind of camera that doesn't even use film, LOL). Any insight into this hot-shoe situation would be appreciated.

Any Minolta AF dedicated flash will fit the Minolta shoe. Not sure if there is an adaptor to the ISO shoe though.

look for a cheap 3500xi flash to fit the shoe directly or look for the fs-1100 foot to convert ISO to maxxum flash adaptor. Luke

Yes, they use a different foot, yes there is an adapter and yes unohuu has it all covered in his short concise message.. As far as 'weak' that would be a relative term, depending on what your expectations and what you want to do with the camera, I have shot Minoltas for a living for over 20 years now and in the ones that I own, the built in flash has worked just fine for certain instances, but if your going to do any serious work, get a external flash that fits the camera as the adapter sets the flash up about an inch and gives you a leverage point that makes it real easy to break it off.

Dave