How can I add a hot shoe to an Olympus XA-series camera?
I took an old, non-functioning A-11 flash, opened it, and removed about all electronics inside, just to create some room for making new connections. I left the flash tube and window in place, because it is part of the construction, so the sturdiness of the flash depends on it. Same applies for the on/off lamp/switch combination. I wired the two contacts on the bottom part of the camera side of the flash (which connect to the sync switch in the camera) to an old PC connector which I glued in a hole I drilled in the other side of the A-11. I wired the same 2 contacts thru to an old hot shoe I had lying around as well, and that one was glued/screwed on top of the A-11. So now I can choose which connection to use, like with an OM-1 + shoe. The construction of the glued shoe is not suited, however, to fit a heavy flash gun on. One had better use a cable plus bracket for that. I would have preferred to fit a PC sync socket on the camera itself, but found myself reluctant to open the thing. T
