Photography!!?

[saturn]

Need to do some photography reasearch, anyone in the know? I need to know what a "hot shoe" is, and some general information about them!! Thanks very much xbailsx

[xavier75]

It's correct that a hot shoe is where the flash is attached to the camera. But it goes a little further than that. It isn't just a simple attachment. There are a number of connections where the camera and flash can communicate with each other in an intelligent basis. Most advanced cameras these days tell the flash what aperture, shutterspeed and ISO the camera is set at and even what the focal length is on the lens to allow the flash to give an optimum performance for the shot. In return, the flash will tell the camera what mode settings the flash is using for example TTL (through the lens metering), balanced TTL, manual, GN etc. So the hot shoe is more than just a connector. You can think of it like a computer connection. Hope this helps.

[photopest]

The answer by ms_whitty26 and seconded by Antoni is correct. I've never mounted a flash on the hot shoe. I've always used off-camera flash. From a Vivitar 283 on the bracket they sold with the flash and used on a Minolta SRT-202 to the Minolta X-700 with a Minolta Power Grip 2 and Minolta 360PX its always been off-camera flash for me.

[xavier75]

just to confirm ms whitty has nailed it.its the thing you attach a flash to on top of most decent cameras like slr/dslr cams and some point n shootsa

[photopest]

Do you mean "hot spot"? A hot spot is bright light emanating from behind or somewhere around the subject of your photo, which overwhelms the photo you intended to take.

[pacman]

A hot shoe is where you stick a flash