What I don't like about Sony mirrorless

[rpcrowe]

I am pretty positively impressed with the Sony mirrorless line of cameras, both full frame and crop sensor. Now that third party manufacturers are bringing out lenses for the Sony e-mount, lens selection is no longer a problem. The Tamron 28-75mm lens is a great glass on the full frame A7iii and is really not too big to use on the smaller crop sensor cameras like the A6400 and A6500, while some of the Sigma lenses like the 30mm f/1.4 are absolutely super for the crop sensor cameras and the Rokinon 12mm f/2.0 lens is a jewel on an APSC camera...

The one thing that I dislike about the Sony line is the Multi-Interface (MI) hotshoe. It is not only pretty flimsy but it is not compatible with virtually any other hotshoe/cold shoe. This incompatibility was aptly illustrated when I tried to mount a flash with a Sony MI hotshoe on a Custom Brackets RF-Pro AS (Rapid Fire) rotating flash bracket.

https://www.google.com/search?q=cust...hrome&ie=UTF-8

I enjoyed using this bracket with my Canon gear. The Canon Off-Camera Sync Cord can accept a screw mount to attach the hotshoe to the to the bracket.

I really wanted to mount a Godox/Flashpoint flash unit to the RF-Pro bracket with a cold shoe that would accept the 1/4 x 20 screw of the RF-Pro. That way I could take advantage of the super RF capability of the Godox.Flashpoint units and would not need a cord between camera and flash. I couldn't find any such device. I emailed B&H and they suggested the above standard screw mount cold shoe. This simply will not work. I emailed Custom Brackets but, got no reply.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...hoe_Mount.html

I attempted to modify the plastic stand that comes with the flash unit but, the screw mount of that stand is forward of the cold shoe mount which results in the flash being about one inch to the rear of the rotating portion of the bracket.

This prevents flash rotation to shoot in the landscape (horizontal) position when a R2 Pro trigger is mounted on the camera hotshoe. I thought about using the smaller X2T-S trigger which would allow the rotation of the flash to the horizontal position, However in the portrait (vertical) position, the placement of the flash to the rear doesn't allow enough room for my fingers to grip the camera. I even tried milling off the plastic feet from the stand but, that did not help to any great degree.

I even considered using the small TT350 flash on the camera hotshoe to trigger the main flash but, the finger space in vertical position is still a major problem

Using the flash bracket that I modified for my Canon gear would not work because of the fact that there is no MI compatible cold shoe I could use with this bracket.



My final work around for this problem is to order a Meike off-camera sync cord the for Sony MI hotshoe.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Apparently, Sony does not produce an OEM of camera cord like the one for Canon DSLR cameras. I think (hope) that this will work. It should work as well as the Canon Off-Camera Sync Cord and it has a screw mount capability to attach the MI hotshoe to the bracket. It will be nice if this works in TTL but, I am willing to use the flash in manual exposure mode if necessary.

My TTL360 flash head has an accessory base which can accept a screw mount rather than a hotshoe mount. However, that flash, with its separate battery pack is a bit big and bulky for a lot of my uses. I wish that there was an accessory base for the other Godox/Flashpoint units which would allow me to convert the flash from a MI hotshoe mount to a cold shoe screw mount...

If I were willing to carry the weight of the TTL360 flash and battery pack. This bracket would work. While I don't mind using a rig of this weight when shooting a model (although I use off camera flash on a stand mostly in more controlled situations), it is a bit heavy for run and gun shooting like this weekend when I am going to cover an Indian Diwali Celebration.



If anyone has a solution to mounting a Multi Interface hotshoe flash to a screw mount please share it with me...