Manfrotto 143S Flash Shoe for Magic Arm - Replaces 2932,Black

OK, so it is a simple plastic "cold shoe"....... didn't we all know that when we bought this item? It works fine for me but I do not use them in "high stress" situations either. No, modern speedlights, with their proprietary spring-loaded locking pins will not lock on to this cold shoe. My SB-900 series speedlights slide into the cold shoe rather snugly; were the shoe any tighter, the speedlight would not fit. As many have mentioned, drilling (or melting with a wire) a small hole for the lock pin will solve that problem. I use PocketWizards however and they have knobs that tighten down (and release the pin) onto a shoe. Provided I snug down the knob on my FlexTT5s, I have not had them move on me.Enough about what is or is not bad about them. They are small and allow me to quickly add light (especially background fill) from any light stand with minimal fuss. I am probably the only weird one about this but I do not like the contacts from my speedlights/x-ceivers on a metal surface. I feel it causes unneeded wear on the contacts and it makes me a bit uncomfortable, from an electrical point-of-view (not so much worried about an electrical short hitting the lightstand, I just don't like the communication contacts shorted-out to each other even if they are supposedly not in use). Using these plastic cold shoes provide me with that little bit extra peace of mind.Oh, for the folks who have concerns about their larger speedlights slipping out of the shoe, I have a suggestion which might work for you......... Given the range of motion available on these speedlight units, if gravity is pulling the speedlight out of the shoe, why not just rotate the cold shoe over 180 degrees and then rotate the speedlight head to compensate? While I could envision a challenge with some units, in some setups, if you are using IR triggering, you have those very same challenges already. Maybe thinking "backwards" could be your solution!

The Manfrotto 143S Magic Arm Flash Shoe is a plastic adapter that can be used to attach a speedlite flash to a light stand. On top is a slot not unlike the hot shoe on a camera into which you insert a speedlite flash. On bottom is a screw that fits into the light stand, with a knurled wheel that tightens the whole assembly to the light stand. It all works pretty well, except that it is a little difficult to turn the knurled wheel tight enough. I resorted to turning the entire flash and adapter to get it tight enough, only to have the flash pointing in the wrong direction. I think it would have been better if the knurled wheel had been a little larger in diameter so that you can get a better grip on it, which would probably solve the problem.Another problem that others have noted is that newer flashes such as Canon's 580EX II have a pin in the foot of the flash that normally fits into a slot in the camera's hot shoe when the flash is locked. The Manfrotto adapter does not have the corresponding slot, making it impossible to lock the flash into the adapter. A work around is to drill your own hole into the adapter to avoid the flash potentially sliding out and falling to the ground.

These things are great, they are the same ones supplied on the Justin clamps.However, be careful, I have modified mine by drilling a hole in the top face, where the flash foot sits. This now enables the flash (580 EX II) locking pin to engage correctly and lock the flash too this.I had thought about it before, but dismissed it as I'm very careful with my equipment yet to my horror, my 580 EX and Pocket wizard Flex TT5 slid off and fell on to the floor.the result could have been catastrophic, for such a simple fix, it almost cost me $600 +Manfrotto needs to update these to facilitate the locking mechanisms the various Speedlites that are on the market employ, if this had been the case I would have given 5 stars

I bought this to attach to my flash to my umbrella adapter and it Kind Of does the job. Here are the reasons why I gave it a 3 stars rating.1. It is made of plastic, not metal. In my opinion it's a lot of money for being made of plastic, it would be worth it if it were made of metal. I don't know how long it will last, but I'm pretty sure that if it were made of metal it would last longer.2. I will have to drill a small hole for my Canon flash to lock properly. I won't use it as it comes from the factory because there is a chance that your flash might fall.I think that Manfrotto should update it so that it can work with toda's Canon Flashes.

As far as the order arrival went that was timely. I had thought it was the entire unit that included a ball joint. Which was to replace the lost one from my justin clamp. It is only the shoe itself and you can not buy the full unit that includes the ball joint. You have to buy a full justin clamp at 59.00 dollars. So, this was a wasteful order that does nothing. The only thing it will do is replace a broken flash shoe on the justin clamp. The assembly can not be purchased, should you lose it. NUTS!

These are exactly what I was looking for and they work great.My only fear is that there is no hole for the shoe lock to slide into... I haven't had my flashes slide out of it yet but I've been very careful not to position them in a way where they could so I don't know if they will.

I love Manfrotto, but the old one (heavy duty).All new Manfrotto it's a bit plastic and non heavy duty (the "shipper" versiones), but do the job. Until today I don't have or report problems with my Manfrotto Stuff. In other hand, I need to be honest, the video or heavy duty Manfrotto stuff it is very heavy duty but the price too.

It might be good it might not be good, I don't know. Turns out I didn't need to get this at all. I work my Nikon speedlight off of a remote trigger that fits quite easily on my light stand. So I spent $10 on a piece of plastic that must of cost 75¢ to make including labor. Unlike me, just make sure that this is what you need before you purchase it and don't get it just because someone else that you don't know tells you to.

It's a very simple bit of kit - the flash slides into the mount at the top, and the bottom is a male screw that threads into a female bolt on whatever stand or equipment you're attaching the flash head to.It works well enough, but isn't very strong, which surprised me. The first time I've been out on location a gust of wind caught my umbrella and toppled the light stand over - it was at it's lowest height so it didn't have far to fall, and it landed on the umbrella, on soft grass - so the impact wasn't hard. The mount snapped and the flash hit the floor.Had it been on concrete I'd have expected the flash to break, but as it was just muddy grass it got mud on it and not a lot else. The fact that the mount snapped doesn't fill me with confidence, and the sturdiness of this Manfrotto part is a far cry from the Manfrotto umbrella adapter it was attached to (which is built like a tank).

I bought this Manfrotto Flash Male Attachment to be usedwith Manfrotto 026 Lite Tite Swivel + Umbrella Adapter and my Canon EX580 II.Considering the product is from Manfrotto and the Price was £10.95plus Postage & Packing: GBP 8.95 it is useless. It can not be screwedtight so you have a feeling of safety that it will hold your flash. Also you flashstarts to turn from side to side from the direction you put it in. The reason is theattachment can not be screewed tight so it holds you flash. I rearly hope Manfrottocan do this better in the future.

Unimpressive product, not very strong, difficult to tighten because of a narrow locking ring. This does not deserve the higher price than similar products.

No puedo quejarme de algo que sabía como iba a ser y funcionar, no tiene mucha ciencia. Es un tornillo que sirve como zapata para el flash de una manera sólida. Lo único es que el precio si es un poco elevado para lo que realmente es, supongo que la marca Manfrotto (que no se ve mucho en la pieza) hace que algo tan simple suba a ese precio. Aunque la realidad es que nadie me engañó, sabía lo que necesitaba y pagué por eso pero si encuentran el producto con descuento valdría más la pena.

Al haber comprado la rótula de Manfrotto 026 Lite Tite Swivel, decidí comprar esta zapata. Lo primero de todo es que pienso que además de venderla aparte como accesorio y/o para reposición, esta zapata debería de ir incluida con la mencionada rota, y no tener que pagar un dinero extra por adjuntarla. Además de que es cara en comparación con otras que hay por ahí, cuya calidad desconozco porque no las he visto pero no creo que sean peores que esta, visto lo visto. En segundo lugar, mientras que la construcción de la rótula es en metal, sólida y de lo mejor que hay, esta zapata es de plástico, sólo tiene metálica la rosca que se atornilla al trípode. Y por último no la recomiendo si tienes un SB-910 (y desde luego, no creo que sea con el único flash al que le ocurra esto) porque no queda fijado lo bien que debiera quedar. No es que quede holgura y se vaya a caer el flash, pero si le ayudas un poquito, sacas el flash de la zapata sin liberar el bloqueo de la zapata del flash. Desde luego, este producto no está a la altura de lo que nos tiene acostumbrado a ofrecer Manfrotto.