Feb 1, 2009, 11:15
![[Image: kak.flashbracket.jpg]](http://www.shuttertalk.com/forums/images/upload/kak.flashbracket.jpg)
I'm doing a couple of weddings for friends soon, but spending $40+ on a flashbracket doesn't make sense when I'll hardly ever use it.
Instead I spent $5.11 and scavenged some parts at home.
The Sony plate came with a F1000 flash for my old F717 camera.
Similar plates with tripod screws and slots and accessory mounts are available cheap at B&H and Adorama.
The FS1100 hotshow adapter is from Gadget Infinity ($16)--I bought it to use my Sunpak on-camera or to attach my Cactus trigger's transmitter, but it also has a handy PC socket that's high-voltage-safe for older flashes.
The 1/4"-20 wing screw and threaded shaft are inexpensive parts from Home Depot--the shaft is epoxied into a hole drilled up the 7inch poplar dowel.
I used epoxy and screws to attach the steel cold shoe on top of the dowel--it came from a crappy plastic 35mm that someone gave me years ago.
A great feature is that the two main parts can be broken down and stored compactly in a front pocket of my camera bag.
I have tested this rig, and the flash provides a small catchlight in the eyes and zero red-eye, even on monkeys.
Photo Info: Since I was using a camera with no hotshoe (Sony H1) I set it for a long exposure in a dark room and manually fired a Quantaray MS-1 slave flash into my 32" Westcott shoot-through umbrella, 18" away camera left.
White foamcore background, black Elmer's Tri-Fold foamcore presentation board underneath.