Sony's new flash hotshoe design WORST design I have ever seen in a flash

Ok - I want to love this flash.  Sony fixed 99% of the problems in their hvl-f58am with this flash, it can drop the power lower, it has menus in english instead of number, its weathersealed and works snappy (though the light seems really cold/blue)  They even put a headlight on it!  (Which would be so much more epic if you could fire the flash when it was turned on)

But this design is flawed.  They had it right...  Change the hotshoe... ANd they did to a WTF IS THAT PEICE OF GARBAGE?

The whole advantage of going to the iso canikon hotshot is all suddenly you open up using new gear like pocket wizards!  Brilliant!

But then.. what the heck is this?  What are all those little wires? hairline, thin wires just waiting to brush against a zipper and get bent up right.

This is the worst design in a hotshoe I have ever seen.   You have to keep stupid caps over everything because unlike a standard iso hotshoe with its three robust squat, indestructible pins this flash system has the most delicate fine little wires.

Weather sealed my rear.  First the SD card door, then the battery door. I can live with lackluster weather sealing on the body and a flimsy SD door but I despise gear I have to baby, that kind of gear will fail you.  It will have you waiting in line for sony repair to charge you the 180$ (miniumum service charge) to replace the one little wire that got bent out of shape.

This flash is nice but its a princess. Its a high maintaence blond chick that can't go the distance.

I am extremely disappointed with this non-sensical design choice.  They made a brilliant flash and then ruined it with a tragic flaw.  I give it 3 days until I lose the stupid caps.

It's called "labyrinth seal". Works quite well.

Just had a very close look at my 60M flash with my magnifing glass.

Those are not thin wires but solid copper pieces in the shape of the letter P (with pointy tip instead of round) that is spring loaded and sinks into their perspective slots when pushed. Same with the adapter shoe that came with my A99. Probably more robust than the len contact pins in my opinion.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/post/50194056

Cheers,

--
"Those who would sacrifice liberty for safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin.
You can see larger versions of my pictures at www.dennismullen.com.

the WORSE part is there are 2 metal bars on the both sides of the hotshoe rails which prevent you from pushing standard triggers like Elinchrom Skyport, cheap Yongnuo triggers etc...fully into the A99 hotshoe. So the back of the trigger is always hitting my forehead! I'm planning to file down the front of my triggers' plate so they can go in all the way 

I concur in one sense.  But Wait until one of those snags on something.  And maybe more robust then lens but lens are always covered to protect optics.  I have never had a flash I had to make sure I had some little pocket protector on.  Its annoying and a poor design.  If they are going to use some ridiculous unique design instead of joining up with the other pro lines.. fine.. i guess but at least make it robust and durable.  Even if they were flat embedded wires that couldnt be bent I would be ok.

I love sony tech.. I do..  I want to be a sony shooter.  I invested about 10k since the a99 came out but if they are going to keep allowing absolutely amateur engineering mistakes to mess up their ergonomics I may have to toss in the towel I guess its sad but that stupid hot shoe upsets me.  I used to keep my 58s handy and just snap them in, no covers on things nothing.  Very durable.

This new flash hotshoe SUCKS BIG TIME..  ANd watch.. they will use it for the next 10 years just because that is the ridiculous kind of thing they do.

It SHOULD be a standard hotshoe.  WHY did they have to ruin a great, basic common component?

I've said it before, and it seems to ringing true as far as I can see insofar as Sony has tried to re-invent the wheel and ended up with a square.  There wasn't much wrong with the older models that some modification and upgrading wouldn't have sorted out, but in addition to the reported 'basic' requirement of any camera is to capture clean images, how many people have reported that even JPEG's suck?  Now this with the hot-shoe!  There's an old adage in that 'if it aint broke, don't fix it', and TBH, it seems to be ringing true to a certain extent.  Being swayed by unnecessary gizmo's and gadgets or the 'next big thing' or 'must have because it'll make you better at image taking' seems like an expensive and pointless exercise.  I'm sure Canikon are getting plenty of new business from disgruntled Ex-Sony owners as a result.

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Mark @ Sonolta*Photography

Wow.  If I was that upset I'd have to move to the ground floor.

You guys should apply for design engineering jobs.

I bet NOTHING they do will please you.

I'd think about trading all your stuff for a Nikon P & S.  Everything they do is perfect.

At least to hear the talk around here.

I at least, love my a99, and can live with the change.  They wanted to keep on the old Minolta shoe, but the whiners won.  Now it's no good either.

Perhaps I'm the only one, but I never liked flash photos.  Put in that silly blue bulb with the steel wool inside and burn it, throw it away, and burn your fingers.  Nuts.

Now you just throw away batteries, or you need 4 power bars to recharge batteries you try and manage, the ones with numbers...which ones were charged again, oh yea, the ones with the 4's marked with a sharpie.

--
Retired forensic photographer.
London, Ontario, Canada.

How do you know what Sony wanted or what motivates them to do things?

The Minolta iISO shoe was not perfect either.

Talk about whining.

Too much flash is often bad.
A very controlled amount can improve the picture in some situations.

Cheers,

--
"Those who would sacrifice liberty for safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin.
You can see larger versions of my pictures at www.dennismullen.com.

You have a legit complaint.

However.....

The production companies, Sony for example, are finding it extremely difficult to cater to all suggestions, criticisms and whatnots.  It is simply a "damn if you do, damn if you don't" proposition.

The new Sony ISO hot shoe is the first thing that turned me off about the A99. There was nothing wrong with the old proprietary quick release hot shoe in my opinion.

Oh well, guess I will keep my Sony A77. Just saved me a whole bunch of money!!

--
Karl Scharf >>> ( Sony SLT-A77, Rokinon 8mm, Sigma 10-20 f4.0-5.6, Sigma 18-250 f3.5-6.3, Sigma 50-500 f4.5-6.3 OS, Minolta 70-210 f4.0, Minolta 50 f1.7, Kenko 1.4x DGX ) <<<

Time for a reality check...

1. Was the Minolta/Sony iISO shoe a perfect design as it was?

No. It was okay, but it was probably better back when Minolta was in charge. After Sony took over, complaints began to surface about wobbling of flashes and performance failures due to poor fit in the camera shoes. Also, being completely plastic, the camera shoes and/or flash feet are easily subject to breakage.

2. What about compatibility?

Under Minolta, the iISO shoe was used only on still cameras, which was Minolta's core business, and the shoe supported nothing but flash units. Sony is a multi-product multi-business company. Sony also sells camcorders and mirrorless cameras and a huge assortment of accessories to put on them. Many of Sony's long-established products have an ISO shoe instead, which supports flash units but also more things such as microphones and video lights and monitors. Sony would need to (and actually started to) maintain two lines of duplicate products in order to serve the needs of all their cameras. For example, they offered a microphone with the iISO shoe in addition to the same microphone with the ISO shoe. This kind of arrangement is not efficient. Sony management decided that one of those shoes would have to go, and they chose to drop the iISO shoe. This has nothing to do with so-called whining A-mount camera owners who didn't like having to adapt their iISO connectors in order to use third-party radio triggers. Sony obviously would not care about any of that. If they cared about radio triggers they would be making their own. They made the change to the flash shoe for their own bottom line reasons.

3. What about those pins on the front?

The new shoe design incorporates a large number of electrical connectors, and Sony is obviously planning to use that interface for many new capabilities. The iISO shoe could not have been adapted in a forwardly compatible way to support that many connectors.

Those who think the pins are vulnerable to damage are jumping the gun. As has been said, they are stronger than they seem at first glance. They might in fact be vulnerable, but that remains to be seen after users have had time to bang on them for awhile. But until such time, that supposed vulnerability is unproven.

I'm not sure I understand but are you saying that a pocket wizard won't work properly on the A99?

I'm also not clear on the having to cap things. Are you saying the hotshoe can't be left without a cover?

Quite!  And that's why I'm staying with my A850 as there's nothing worth the additional investment that I need that I don't have already, but some seem to need all the changes and trinkets . . good for them.

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Mark @ Sonolta*Photography

Having never seen the hotshoe in question, up close, I ccouldn't comment on the veracity of your complaint. Can you post a picture of the hotshoe?

I purchased a Bower flash for Sony DSLRs with the new  Multi-Interface Shoe Adapter  for my VG900 and I get an error "the external flash not attached".

Sony HVL-F60M flash

A99

Let's not forget the cap that protects those pins in the hotshoe as well as seals it from the weather.

--
Paul

No thanks, looks flimsy to me! Much prefer the original flash mounting interface.

--
Karl Scharf >>> ( Sony SLT-A77, Rokinon 8mm, Sigma 10-20 f4.0-5.6, Sigma 18-250 f3.5-6.3, Sigma 50-500 f4.5-6.3 OS, Minolta 70-210 f4.0, Minolta 50 f1.7, Kenko 1.4x DGX ) <<<