The small bracket on top of every camera, from a phone rig to an ARRI.

The hot shoe is where the flash goes, and the microphone, and the monitor, and whatever the next decade bolts on. Every camera has one and nobody photographs it. This magazine is named after it because that is where the whole business meets: the body, the glass, the light, the sound, and the person holding it.

I shot news in Gothenburg for nine years and documentary for hire after that, then stopped taking assignments to write about the tools. Since 2021 I live in Tokyo, ten minutes from the used-camera shops of Shinjuku, which is not an accident: Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fujifilm, Panasonic, Ricoh and Sigma make almost everything worth pointing at a subject, and their own press writes about it first, in Japanese. So this magazine reads it there, and in German, French, Italian and Spanish, and in English from the reviewers who actually put a card in the slot — around eighty sources and thirty channels, counted and plotted so you can see what is moving.

Bodies and lenses, cinema cameras and drones, film and the darkroom, firmware and the software that finishes the picture, the rumours before the launch and the reviews after it, and the photographers and shows the rest of it is for. I test what I write about on a job before a word goes down. I shoot film on Sundays and do not think that makes me interesting.

A story here is a headline, a short excerpt, one picture and the link to whoever reported it. We never reprint the article, and the picture belongs to the photographer or the maker. A story written in Japanese appears in Japanese, as its author set it down; the link goes to the original.

— Mara Lindqvist, Tokyo

← Hot Shoe Archive

Nikon RumorsRumours

The 2026 5DayDeal Photography Bundle is now available

October 9

The 2026 5DayDeal Photography Bundle is now available. As in previous years, you will get a package of photography tools at a drastically reduced price ($1,500+ worth of pro-level courses, tools, and…

Read at Nikon Rumors ↗

Also covered by: L-Rumors, Pentax Rumors, Photo Rumors

More from Nikon Rumors on Hot Shoe

RumoursNikkei interview with Nikon: focus on investing in next-generation image processors, image sensors, and video cameras, launching an engine and software platform Nikon Rumors

One letter a week, starting soon.

Latest

The 2026 5DayDeal Photography Bundle is now available

More from Nikon Rumors on Hot Shoe

RumoursTamron 20-40mm f/2.8 Di III VXD (Model A062) lens for Nikon Z-mount announced Nikon Rumors

RumoursSigma 16-300mm f/3.5-6.7 DC OS Contemporary lens for Nikon Z-mount announced Nikon Rumors

RumoursNikon USA fall rebates for October Nikon Rumors

RumoursSmallRig autumn savings now live Nikon Rumors

RumoursNikkei interview with Nikon: focus on investing in next-generation image processors, image sensors, and video cameras, launching an engine and software platform Nikon Rumors

RumoursWeekly Nikon news flash #906 Nikon Rumors