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.