Ever tried to make a hot flash shoe adapter for cameras?

[jlomein]

Just curious if anyone has ever attempted a DIY project making a flash shoe adapter for cameras to hold a flashlight. On the other hand, have there been any commercially made products?

I'm not even sure how effective a flashlight is for replacing a camera flash, for photos or low light movies.

 

[Zenster]

I'm not even sure how effective a flashlight is for replacing a camera flash, for photos or low light movies.

Likely, not very at all.

Even the floodiest flashlight will have a center beam that will show up really crappy in a photo, and, even the floodiest flashlight won't have the wide angle coverage that even a cheap flash does.

I wouldn't go there. Lot's of hassle with nothing to show for it at the end.
Plus, you can some decent flashes for less than a lot of our LED lights cost.

By any chance, have you ever personally tried to use a wrench when a hammer might be the right tool for the job?
:wave:

 

[paanta]

A hot shoe flash puts out enough light to bring a 20'x20' room up to say, f/5.6 @ ISO 400 in about 1/4000th of a second....doing that with a flashlight would require a lot, lot longer and would be way less efficient. Forget stopping motion or reducing camera shake.

Not that flashlights don't have their applications in photography. If you haven't seen this guy's work, prepare to be blown away:
http://www.designshed.com/lostamerica/aircraft.html

He uses a combination of flashes and flashlights to do all that stuff. Simply awesome.

 

[scott.cr]

I'm not sure a hot shoe would have the mechanical strength necessary to support the weight of such a light. Would probably be better off mounting the light to a metal frame, and mounting the camera to the frame through its tripod hole.

 

[TONY M]

No, as Zenster says it would show up crappy even though it may look OK to the naked eye. It would have to be super, super bright too for anything other than close up work...

...But I do have a ring flash (no jokes please) for close up photography work. It does however have its problems though with a slow recharge time, dark image in viewfinder etc. So I have thought about making a LED one for some time and I think there are even some on ebay. I'll get around to doing it some time in the very distant future I presume.

 

[LukeA]

A hot shoe flash puts out enough light to bring a 20'x20' room up to say, f/5.6 @ ISO 400 in about 1/4000th of a second....doing that with a flashlight would require a lot, lot longer and would be way less efficient. Forget stopping motion or reducing camera shake.

startup time for an LED is 1 microsecond.

 

[jlomein]

hmmm...well, maybe it wouldn't work so well for photos, but it may come in handy for cameras that have a flash shoe and also record decent videos. If I end up getting something like a Canon S5 IS I may try it out.

Heck I may even try it out tonight with an ultra-compact point and shoot lol...

 

[TigerhawkT3]

Yep. Well, it's not exactly an adapter for any flashlight so much as a light purpose-built for lighting my videos, but it works. Here's what you could do to build a (nearly) universal hot-shoe flashlight adapter:

1. Wood or aluminum block
2. #7 (13/64") drill bit and 1/4-20 tap
3. Hose clamp
4. Screws to hold hose clamp
5. Rubber to cushion flashlight
6. Tripod-to-shoe adapter (other models available at other stores)

If nothing else, it would give your camera's autofocus enough light to work with.

Luke, what paanta is saying is that an LED flash would need to be on for a while to give you the level of exposure you'd get with a 1/4000s hot-shoe flash.

 

[TorchBoy]

I remember someone wanting to make a constantly-on ring light for his camera from LEDs, instead of using a ring flash. He was eventually discouraged (I think) from the idea, basically because of the reasons mentioned in post 3 above by paanta, and the very high cost of the project.

 

[jlomein]

Well I just tried this out by holding a flashlight with my point and shoot camera (Surefire L4, Fenix T1, and Pentax Optio S) and actually works pretty good. In small rooms the camera's flash works a lot better for photos, but the flashlights did a decent job allowing the camera to focus properly. The T1 also worked great for distance photos where the camera's flash had no effect.

What really made a difference was video mode. Both flashlights worked very well while shooting video, the L4 a lot better because it has an even beam with no hotspot. If I end up getting a camera that has a good video mode and a hot shoe adapter, I'm definitely going to try making one for a flashlight.

 

[jeffosborne]

Here's a light I built lately to fit the odd proprietary flash shoe on my Minolta A200 camera:

It uses 2 neutral-white Luxeon Rebel -0080 LEDs at a switchable 350ma or 800ma, 300 lumens on high

Here it is mounted to the camera

I plug it into a belt-clip battery pack that supports up to 4 different light heads:

The battery pack is a 10.8v 2500mah with 3 18650's. It has 3 battery outputs and one regulated output. Here's a look inside

When I use the flash-shoe mount light by itself, it is a fill-in light, not a primary light. But I mostly use it in tandem with one or two other lights, like this home made 900 lumen 6-Rebel light head that I hold in my left hand. It's shown here at 50ma to accomodate the photo

The trouble I have using LEDs with photography is the hard shadow it can often cause, and the color rendition. But good results can be had with proper planning.
Cheers,
Jeff O.