A Better Cold Shoe

Stroboframe Cold Shoe. Buy yours here.

Minor Irritant: Sometimes things become annoying far beyond their size or importance. Let's examine the humble cold shoe. Its mission is simple: Provide an attaching point for shoe-compatible accessories. This became more important when Strobist began advocating off-camera placement of radio-triggered speed-lights. Initially, many photographer simply used a plastic threaded speedlight base similar to the one included with Nikon speedlights. After a while, the cold shoes made by Stroboframe became the hot thing, in part because they incorporated a clamping mechanism to more securely retain the flash. Over the years I must have purchased over a dozen such shoes, the majority of which were Chinese knockoffs purchased for half the cost on eBay. 

The knockoffs, while inexpensive, had a habit of disassembling themselves when riding around in a camera bag. The retaining screw would loosen, allowing the components (2 tiny springs, a clamping foot, and the screw itself) to separate from the base. I can't recall the Stroboframe versions ever deconstructing in this manner. Havoc favores the lessor quality component.

Frio Cold Shoe. Buy yours here.

The Frio Cold Shoe: One interesting variation came in the way from a company called Frio, and it addressed the retention issue in a novel way. It is made of tough, flexible plastic and features a retention tab that must be depressed before the flash can be removed. The fly in the ointment is the brass threaded insert for attaching the unit to a light stand or other 1/4 x 20 device. While the brass itself is sturdy enough, it appears to be press fit into the base of the shoe, which may lead to separation from the shoe itself. While I have never had that happen, it is possible. It has happened with the plastic cold shoes mounted on the Manfrotto Justin Clamps, and they have a similar metal to plastic juncture.

Anwenk Cold Shoe. Buy yours here.

A Better Solution? I recently found this cold shoe on Amazon. Branded under the name Anwenk, it appears to be machined from a single piece of metal with a small screw installed to prevent unsecured accessories from sliding forward, and off, the shoe. You can also see the threaded 1/4" X 20 threaded hole. Again, it's fabricated for a single chunk of metal, so there's nothing to pull out should he going get rough.

It is a tradeoff. The clamping action of the Stroboframe cold shoe is certainly secure so long as the clamping screw stays tight. As for the Frio, its only shortcoming is the possibility of the threaded brass insert being pulled from the shoe itself. But the Anwenk has problem when using a speedlight that employs a retracting locking pin, which includes the Nikon SB 800 and SB 900 series. It has no provision to receive the locking pin when the user attempts to use locking lever located on the flash foot. This probably applies to any shoe-mounted speedlight that does not use a knurled locking wheel on the shaft of the flash's foot. For me it's a  non-issue, as these shoes will be part of my traveling speedlight kit where all the speedlights use the old-fashioned knurled locking wheel.

I will eventually replace my knockoffs with this all-metal shoes. Somehow, it just feels more secure, and eliminates the occasional need to locate those tiny parts when one of the knockoffs throws a tantrum. Of course, I remembered to tighten down all screw-based retention systems before put things away, the the problem might just disappear.

Godox AD-E2 - A Worthy Umbrella Bracket Upgrade

Order yours here.

New And Improved. I just started following Markus Rothkranz's channel on YouTube. At first, I was a little skeptical about his approach to photography, but as I watched his BTS (behind the scenes) commentary on lighting techniques, I started to get interested. Personally, I prefer a written blog posting over a video because text can be skimmed more quickly than slogging through the normal patois that has become a mainstay on the 'Tube. However, I came to appreciate his minimal approach to outdoor lighting, and over time, started to check his channel on a regular basis.

During one of his recent videos he described the new umbrella bracket that is currently supplied with the Godox "mini-monolights", including my beloved AD200. Shown here is the newest iteration of the humble umbrella bracket. While not visible in the photo, it has several important improvements:

Metal Construction: The original brackets were made from plastic, which I considered perfectly adequate until one such unit shattered when a light stand toppled over in the wind. I'm a little more optimistic that this won't happen with this one.

Photo Source: Click here.

Elimination Of The Spigot: Umbrella brackets accommodate spigots (short threaded brass rod stock) at both ends. When properly oriented, the top spigot recess is used to attach a cold shoe, while the lower recess attaches the bracket to the spigot on the tip of the lightstand. While the spigot adds versatility, you only need a 1/4 x 20 thread to attach nearly any accessory you would need. As you can see, the spigot has been replaced with a tripod-inspired 1/4 x 20 thumbscrew.

You can see that an AD200 easily mounts on the bracket using the flash's 1/4 x 20 threaded socket on the side. This keeps the flash close to the umbrella's axis. This makes it easier to use the AD200 with my Westcott umbrella-based softboxes in which the flash is mounted inside the softbox to prevent light spillage. My collection of Westcott softboxes haven't received much love lately, simply because the collapsing softboxes like the Lastolite are easier to transport.

Screw Retention: The original umbrella brackets had only a spring metal tab to hold the umbrella in place. This annoyed me to now end, so the addition of a retention screw is high on my "like list". However, Mr. Rothkranz gave a possible explanation. Lack of a retaining screw would allow the umbrella to slide out of the bracket if the wind catches it, This could be a good idea, as a flying umbrella is more likely to survive an episode of free flight. If held in place, the lift-off would probably drag the light stand with it, potentially resulting in the purchase of a working replacement for a potentially destroyed flash. If this is the case, I may decide to not tighten the thumbscrew if a flying umbrella is a very real outcome.

Incidentally, in these photos, the retaining screw is on the backside of the bracket. I guess it was considered unphotogenic.

Umbrellas: The umbrellas that I usually carry are similar to this Phottix Double Fold Umbrella, a 36" diameter shoot through umbrella that collapses to a compact 16" length. To save on weight, they have shafts that are thin, six-sided tubes, which can be crushed if retaining screws are overtightened. I normally force the shaft of a wooden pencil down the shaft for reinforcement. I normally cover the tip with a small plastic cap for added protection and remove it if it interferes with the umbrella bracket.. 

Inserting an umbrella was actually a fight! The spring steel retaining tab, relocated to the interior of the umbrella mounting hole, already provides a secure grip on the umbrella shaft. In fact, it feels so secure that the retention screw may be a "belt and suspenders" situation. In addition, the contour of the tension spring is easier to insert the umbrella from one specific side, while I'll mark for future reference.  This was by design because the AD200 and its subsequent variations all can be mounted on the side, parallel to the umbrella axis.

Goodbye to this kluge

Clarification: Just in case this makes no sense, here is an AD200 mounted on a conventional umbrella bracket. You can see that the umbrella shaft is secured at an angle from the bracket. This is an accomodation for the additional height of a conventional speedlight, and is designed so that the beam of the flash and the center of the umbrella coincide when the umbrella is fully extended. Notice that I needed to add an additional spigot (photo left) to provide the necessary clearance for the screw to turn.

Flash Attachment: The tripod-inspired mounting screw can be used with either the low profile AD200 flash variants or by adding a cold shoe, conventional shoe-mounted speedlights. I can now position the AD200 much closer to the umbrella axis when using a traditional umbrella bracket. If I mount the cold shoe on a small ball head, I can achieve the same results with a conventional speedlight.

So what's not to like?