How strong is the hot-shoe...?
 

As I'm in the midst of building a "cage" for my 5d rig, I came across this setup from Redrock where, apparently, the top grip-handle is attached directly to the camera's hot-shoe (or is it attached to a rail-bracket behind it?) Anyways, this got me to wonder how strong can that shoe (and its foundation) really be..?

Every time I see that rig I think "there's a future voided warranty".

Seriously, I wouldn't dream of it. I've seen too many shoe damaged in a fall with just a flash attached, and the feet on most flashes are designed to break before the shoe.

Dave Smith

But it looks cool.

And, actually, it would be quite handy if the hot-shoe was indeed strong enough to carry a camera rig.

-- peer

I don't think the CAMERA is strong enough to carry a camera rig. That's why there are handles on camera rigs. They take up the load so it isn't put on the body. I'm sure the camera could be carried around by a handle mounted in the shoe, but add a rail system and matte box seems crazy. That is way too much weight to be putting into such a small area of the frame. Perhaps if the camera is never used on anything but a tripod, this would be okay. If it is only being used on a tripod, why would there be a need for a handle on the top? A top handle would be for getting low-angle shots most likely while in motion. That would be putting very dynamic loads on about one square inch. Even if the camera was made of steel I don't think that would work reliably.

Don't forget most stuff you mount is mounted to a hole that's about 3/8" in diameter on the bottom of the camera. As far as I know the hotshoe is mounted to the same magnesium body element that the tripod screw is, so I can't imagine there's much difference in strength.

Even,

There is a difference using the mount thread. You tend to be threading surface area to surface area so your weight is distributed differently and center of gravity is different. Yes if you mounted a camera to a 1/4" thread and there was no other surface contact, you would be in trouble. But that's not usually what's happening, for example a tripod plate/mount or even vertical grip. In those situations pressure isn't directly placed on the thread contact.

Now the hot-shoe, my biggest worry is getting whatever you're tighten in to it to not slide if you angle at all on the "rails" of the hot-shoe. Even when you top-down tighten something on to the shoe, it still have some give so that would be my biggest concern. If you read Redrock's site they disclaimer anything attaching to the hot-shoe, not so comforting. I worry even attaching a monitor to a hot-shoe adapter. I don't think the shoe is designed to handle that type of torque on it's rails, when moving the camera in a tilt fashion, espeically when that's that only surface area contact those little metal strips.

I've made a small shoe mount top handle before. With just the 5D and a small lens, it held together pretty well. I could have the lens pointing straight down without it sliding off. With a Mattebox and follow focus, however, it would slide off right away when pointing down. My top handle was made with parts l had laying around so it did wiggle a bit, l suspect if l had add some rubber to thicken up the shoe piece and provide more grip, it would be much stronger. l think if you gonna go with a shoe mount top handle, just don’t rely on it when you need to point the lens down, especially with a full rig or a heavy lens.