Gary Friedman sent me this:
Here’s my latest product idea for people who shoot with Sony’s new flashes:
https://goo.gl/photos/a9mxo6FpmYirPH2o8
This is a mock-up of low-profile, high-strength hot shoe adapters for Sony’s new MiS hot shoe. Now I can go back to carelessly throwing my flash into my camera bag without worry of bending those vulnerable pins or losing that tiny plastic cover. (Again.)
While I’m in Vegas covering CES for f2 Cameracraft I’m going to see if there is a manufacturer willing to take this on.
Feel free to share! 🙂 I have no idea what the market size for this would be… hopefully your audience could let me know if this is something they would benefit from.
47 Responses
“Now I can go back to carelessly throwing my flash into my camera bag
without worry of bending those vulnerable pins or losing that tiny
plastic cover.” Exactly. This is my other complaint about Sony’s new flashes… I wish they would have just gone with a standard ISO hot shoe. Even when they standardize, they don’t standardize.
The standart hotshoe has got two contacts. Even Canon and Nikons hotshoes are not “Standard-Iso”, E-TTL and such stuff are “manufacturer given stuff” and are “addon”.
http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/957481HotShoe2.jpg
And you can use Standard-Iso stuff with the new Sony hotshoe (for example nikon sb-80 on Sony A7R), just in manual mode – standart-iso is only for trigger signal.
The only standart is the ground and the x/trigger.
This is standart iso:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/37081-REG/Nikon_362_AS_1_Flash_Coupler_Standard.html-7poLgO&tbm=isch&iact=rc&uact=3&dur=2291&page=1&start=0&ndsp=85&ved=0ahUKEwiA84-oj5XKAhXDzRQKHe40COcQrQMIfjAd
So many contacts, so little time.
I’m not quite sure what these do, can someone explain to me? Thanks.
The current switch shoes are quite big, without any need to be that big. If you can have a flat version, that is inexpensive, you can use it as a switch and also as a protection.
(that’s how I do understand it)
The current ones also don’t lock down very well and work loose in use.
Lots of reports of expensive flashes falling off the camera, to the point where I’m reluctant to use the official one at all!
Thanks Gary Friedman! You’re the best.
Also, I would buy a few of these for both my old Minolta film bodies and my A7.
Great design Gary!! Maybe if you can’t find a manufacturer, you can always kickstart something like this, or sell the design back to sony so they’ll make a proper (but costly) adapter. I would like a couple 🙂
That said, Sony should have opted for the standard ISO hotshoe without the pins. A standard iso hotshoe is less fragile and a better lockdown could be made. Even the minolta hotshoe locked down a lot better. Although I sometimes use the XLR adapter (version 1), I think it would have been better if they made a seperate port for these accessoiries. Because when the XLR is connected to the camera, you don’t have a spare hotshoe for the xlr unit itself. And besides flash / xlr adapter, what else is useful in the hotshoe? Nobody uses the optional viewfinder (too expensive or already available on camera) or any other sony hotshoe acc (light and mic could just as well be next to the camera in stead of on top)
Great idea
send me link where to buy and i will do it straight away.
This does appear to be an improvement from the Sony design but I can’t imagine the market to be very large, and of course it’s shrinking every day.
Why would it be shrinking? This is not a Minolta to MIS adapter.
It does look good, if you happen to have either an old-style flash and want to use it with your new camera, or if you have an old camera and want to use a new flash with it. But in both cases, the old flash or old camera are trending towards obsolescence. And while these look more streamlined than the Sony versions, the fact that they’ve been out there since day 1 does put a headwind on demand.
the old flashes with the better minolta hotshoe still work fine, and i think are feature competative to atleast 90%. think the sony ones are just reshoed to the worse shoe.
so i dont really want to buy new expensive flashes because sony changed the shoe so reviewers bought into the lie and so canikon converts can use there ttl flashes in manual mode (if u sit them just right, lol) at the expense of their entire existing customer base who got lumped with some half ass adapter with no locking pin so the flash can easily fall off.
im not sure how compatible a mis flash is with a “standard” hotshoe either.
but still we get useful features like gps tagging if u have the adapter sony doesnt make, some audio features which im not sure if they do or dont, and external view finder.
these also require the camera to have the relivant pin out which they may not
I’m also cheesed off with Sony. Having committed to their original / Minolta flashes, when I upgraded my camera I had to make do with the chunky, unreliable adaptors from Sony. A low profile, slimline adaptor that could be permanently mounted on the camera or flash would be one way for Sony to make amends.
There are two models, one from Minolta to MIS and one from MIS to Minolta
No, that is not the point. You would keep one of these permanently mounted to your camea, and the other permanently attached to your flash. Then you can easily mount / dismount your flash, and then carelessly toss the flash into your camera bag without worrying about bending those little tiny pins. I keep 2 flashes in my camera bag at all times and I HATE the fact that I have to treat them extra carefully – it slows me down.
Ok, then I misunderstood the purpose. Thanks for clarifying.
They look very smart .
Much better than the Sony ones .
I would be very interested in a couple to leave permanently on an a77ii and an a7ii .
From the shots you provide it’s not clear how they would stay on though .
How have you designed them to lock in place ?
Two issues with the concept:
1) There does not seem to be a locking mechanism on the adapter, which is needed to secure anything in the MIS shoe;
2) The market for this will only shrink as there is no manufacturer who will be using now deprecated iISO shoe on the new products.
It’s not the same thing but solves some situations:
http://www.enjoyyourcamera.com/Studiozubehoer/Blitzausloeser-fuer-Studioblitze/JJC-Blitzadapter-fuer-Studioblitz-an-Standard-ISO-Kamerablitzschuh-oder-Sony-Multi-Interface-Shoe::6688.html
Main problem with such adapters are that they only carry the trigger signal.
I used to have a Phottix Strato II for Sony Trigger/Receiver system. They were made in the old and lovely iISO, aka Minolta hot shoe. Never had a single problem with my Nex 7. When I finally bought my A7, I had to use an adapter like the one you’ve linked and I had this tiny problem.
Strato II triggers have TTL pass through with a hot shoe on themselves so you can put your trigger on top of your camera and still use a flash on top of that, you lose that with these single pin adapters. Not a big deal, who wants to put a full sized flash on top of their A7 is beyond me.
My real problem was when you half-press the shutter on your camera. When you do that, they normally send a signal to the flash to make them wake up, if they’ve gone to the stand-by mode. Phottix (and probably all other good transmitters) transmit that signal to their respective receivers to wake your wireless flashes as well. That’s brilliant because otherwise you’d have to walk around in your studio to wake up your flashes after taking a short break (Or disable power saving mode on all your flashes). These single pin adapters won’t let your flashes wake up like that. As a result, you’ll have misfires, frustration and confusion and you’ll look like an idiot.
Because of these problems, I had to buy a MI to iISO adapter. However, I later sold all of my Sony compatible flashes and transmitters and went to use a Godox system. They already come with single pin ISO feet so they work just fine on my A7 and also on my old Minoltas with a simple adapter.
What don’t Sony a7rII have a standard flashotshoe?? Can’t I use pocketwizard wihtout a adapter??
Yes you can use pocket wizards without an adapter. Products with a canon hot shoe tend to jut out a little from the shoe, which is not an issue with pocket wizards since they are small. It can be an issue when using a full size, heavier flash since the full weight of the flash does not get to rest on all its foot.
Sony really needs to lengthen the shoe a little.
These adapters are fine, but would like to have natively supported accessories.
Please don’t get me wrong, I am happy with Sony DSLR/T/M’s since my day one, but I am pi..ed off eversince I started on the Sony-Train with my former A550 with compatibility of accessories made for ISO HS as well as with the available Sony accessories (specifically flash guns).
Fantastic! So much better than the Sony solution with the adapter fixed to the flash!
So how many accessories do you need to turn a Sony into a proper workable camera ahahaha
A lot. Seriously a lot.
Count me in for at least one of each.
I would buy one of each
If Sony made a A6100 in X-Mount, would you buy it?
In for both.
Yes! I’m going to sign up. I would buy this…definitely.
But it doesn’t look to lock onto the body.
awesome 🙂
I would need one of each…..
WANT!
What Gary needs is trying to convince Sony to change the current plastic shoes made by other made of metal. That. Point.
And if not, please design a new shoe, and teach them to Sony engineers and designers how. I could even do it!
And the “pins” to be integrated differently. It’s amazing what Sony’s engineers and designers have failed with regard to this important piece. In the case of HVL60, the giant head in size and weight simply can not be supported by a small and week collar as they designed. Obviously, their tests are used in controlled situations, but in real life, we, the professional photographers ; use them otherwise. And break.
Btw, sorry my english.
Unless there’s a way to keep compatibility with the MI-shoe, I don’t think it’s a good idea.
The MI-shoe is awesome for acessories…
Does anyone notice with a7 the auto focus assistance light on external flash is not working?
same as a6000 i believe,
it will use in-body auto focus assistance light when attached external flash..
Why is that… I somehow have a feeling the in-body light is not very accurate.
The infrared filter on top of the sensor blocks most of the near-infrared AF Assist light coming from the accessory flash. That’s why it’s disabled when atop an E-mount body, and that’s why the focus assist lamp on the body is considerably less red.
I prefer invisible light.
No lock. No good.
@disqus_YBNsIdvMMK:disqus, great idea. I use the Phottix Odin(s) with my Sony cameras and I’ve got to say, a low profile always on adapter like the one you’re showing would be _awesome_, since I don’t use anything with the MIO ISO shoe.
The only gotcha is going to be price. If you are looking for someone to partner with, why not Flash Zebra? (http://flashzebra.com/).
Btw, love your instructional ebooks. They rock. It was your ebooks that clued me in to the awesome wireless sync and HSS features of the Sony cameras. And RF wireless HSS with the Phottix Odin(s) makes the Sony camera/flash system even more possible.