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The extra contacts on the Canon hotshoe are to allow the flash to communicate with the camera, in order for the flash to read camera settings (such as the lens focal length to set the zoom factor) as well as access to the camera's light meter to perform automatic TTL (through the lens) flash metering. To simply fire a flash in time with the camera shutter ...

I would use the hot shoe, especially with panormas - I have had contact issues with PC flash connectors (even the screw lock kind) in the past; the connector isn't really mechanically robust. Besides, a missed release confirmation isn't so bad: you might end up with false negatives (duplicate shots that the system repeated because it didn't get the ...

Well, if you want to use any of the flashes you purchase on your camera body as well, then getting receivers that are designed for Sony (originally Minolta) hot shoes is a good idea and that may mean needing a Sony mount. However, one thing to consider is that Sony, for reasons I'm try to understand, put an ISO standard hot shoe on the A99. So... If there's ...

I'm not quite sure exactly what you are looking for. There are only a few main things that I commonly see hot shoes being used for these days: Flash Units Flash Cords Bubble levels Video Lights Microphones GPS Units In the past I have seen them used for a few other things, but this is much less common: Special viewfinder type units Light meters Since ...

The EOS 5D Mark III and EOS 7D require a firmware upgrade to be compatible with the GPS Receiver GP-E2, which will be available soon To my understanding you can in fact use the GPS unit separately or on the hotshoe. When you use it separately you have to connect it to the camera via usb. As for holding it close to the camera I recommend that pocket ...

The circuit will connect the shoe mount to the center pin to fire. It sounds like up to 6 volts is what Canon asks for, but it can apparently vary a lot depending on the flash. Other pins may contain other signals, but that portion is proprietary in most cases so you'd probably want to use the circuit completion and provide your own low voltage signal. ...

The extra pins are used for proprietary communication between Canon camera bodies and compatible flashes (primarily Canon, but some third parties have backwards engineered the communication). It includes information about through the lens metering and also the ability to control settings on the flash from the camera body. As far as the flash having to be ...

Modern flash units from recognizable manufacturers rarely use camera-damaging trigger voltages, so you don't need to worry about the 580EX. Once upon a time, the flash trigger transformer's primary voltage (several hundred volts) was directly switched by contacts in the shutter in order to generate the 4000 or so volts the flash tube needs to have in order ...

It sounds like your connector is loose and the contacts internally occasionally do not connect. This is common occurrence in many, many consumer electronics surrounding connection points. This is evidenced by when you nudge it one way or the other, it working / not working. Either try to get it repaired or replace it.