In keeping with the entirely DIY nature of my Olympus C4000Z remote shutter and external flash sync alterations, I also bodged together an essential accessory to go with them: a tripod-mounted flash hot shoe.
It’s built entirely out of bits of junk and spare parts I had in the basement for a total cost of nothing but an hour or two of my time. Cheap at twice the price, as they say. 
The parts I dug up were:
- two metal support brackets which come with longer windowblinds and are intended to support the middle section. These are c-shaped with some holes drilled in them.
- One plastic mounting bracket also from a no-longer-used windowblind. It’s about cube shaped with two adjacent sides missing.
- Two long, thin bolts with matching washers and nuts.
- One long (2-3″), 1/4″-20 coachbolt. It should be the type with a smooth, round, convex head. Several nuts and washers to fit it.
- Plastic 1/4″-20 wingnut.
The metal c-brackets were bent at the bottom to make a better fit to the plastic bracket and then mounted, using the two thin bolts. The opening between the two brackets is 1/2″ wide. These are the ground rails for the flash foot to sit on.
A hole was drilled to accept the 1/4″-20 bolt. Duck tape is used to insulate all but the very center of the bolt’s head, this will be the center sync pin. With a flash mounted, the center bolt is adjusted so that it connects to the center pin on the flash foot. A nut either side of the hole the bolt runs through locks it firmly into place.
Nuts and washers are placed onto the 3 bolts for electrical connection. The two ground rails are connected together to one wire, and the center bolt connects to the other wire. I ran these via coaxial cable just because that’s what I had available, lamp cord would also work. The cable end has a 3.5mm mono jack to fit the C4000Z flash sync socket I added.
The base of the center bolt has a plastic wingnut, locked into place with another nut just above it. There’s a decent depth of thread at the open end of the wingnut, which mounts onto a standard tripod screw.
The screw-type foot locks work well with this, however there’s no support underneath so overtightening the lock screw could cause damage to plastic-footed flashes.
A Nikon SB-800 works in this rig, but isn’t very secure, the metal rails aren’t thick enough for it to clamp down on properly. I’m sure the SB-400, -600, -900 and -80 with similar lever-lock mechanisms would share this problem. But really, why on earth would you build a homemade hotshoe for a flash costing 3-figures anyway? That’s just wrong!
