iISO flash shoe

In order to speed up and enhance attachment, detachment and latching, it departs from the conventional circa-1913 mechanical design that is now standardized as ISO 518:2006[1] and used by other camera systems, including Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Olympus, and Leica.

Prior to 1988, Minolta has used that familiar, common hot-shoe design, adding, just like the other makers, its own proprietary contacts for enhanced control.

Reportedly conceived with the input from Herbert Keppler in 1987, the new Minolta patented design[3] featured a push-button latching mechanism, for the purpose of easier and faster flash attachment and removal and a more secure hold.

Listed top-to-bottom (looking at the flash shoe socket as pictured above, or with the camera positioned with the lens pointing up):[4] The electrical interface and protocol is backward-compatible with the older Minolta hotshoe, except for that it does not support the F4 signal, which was provided by the first generation of Minolta AF SLRs to control the AF illuminator, as this function became part of the digital protocol.

The iISO hot shoe's introduction left few informed users indifferent - some photographers loved it, while others hated it.