Hot shoe

A hot shoe is a mounting point on the top of a camera to attach a flash unit and other compatible accessories.

Canon, Nikon, Olympus, and Pentax use the standard ISO hot shoe with various proprietary electronic extensions.

In 2014, camera accessory manufacturer Cactus combined these electronic extensions into a multi-brand hot shoe on their wireless flash transceiver V6.

In September 2012, Sony announced a new ISO-based 21+3 pin Multi Interface Shoe for use with their future digital cameras of the Alpha, NEX, Handycam, NXCAM and Cyber-shot series.

An internal camera circuit connects the center contact and shoe mount to trigger the flash.

Minolta documented all their cameras' electronically controlled PC terminals and ISO hot shoes to be protected up to 400 volts.

It is possible to connect an older high-voltage triggering flash to a camera which can only tolerate 5 or 6 volts through an adaptor containing the necessary voltage protection circuitry, typically using a high power TRIAC.

In order to avoid dangerous loops when connecting equipment in complex studio setups, better adapters offer voltage protection and galvanic isolation of the units.

As an example, Minolta offered the PC terminal adapter PCT-100 (8825-691) for this purpose, which worked as a galvanic isolator and could withstand 400 volts DC or AC.

The similar Sony flash sync terminal and ISO hotshoe adapters FA-ST1AM and FA-HS1AM also offer galvanic isolation as well, but only up to 60 volts DC or AC.

2 to 2.5 volts may exhibit this problem, unless the triggering circuit is specifically designed to work with such low voltages.

They are used with off-camera flash units, mounted on stands and connected to the camera by cable or triggered wirelessly.

[9] FotoSpot geotagging satellite positioning units utilize the accessory shoe for mounting to the camera.