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

Digital Camera WorldReviews

The most popular lenses in Japan are third-party zooms. The No.1 is a "remarkably compact yet well-built" optic, available for Canon RF, Fujifilm X, Sony E and L-mount

September 24

Sigma's standard zoom lenses are best-sellers in Japan, while Sony's affordable 100-400 telephoto zoom beats Nikon and Canon

Lenses Japan-inspired Lenses Cameras

Read at Digital Camera World ↗

One letter a week, in your inbox.

Latest

The most popular lenses in Japan are third-party zooms. The No.1 is a "remarkably compact yet well-built" optic, available for Canon RF, Fujifilm X, Sony E and L-mount

Related

ReviewsInsta360 Luna Ultra gimbal camera gets a massive 22.5x zoom with two new updates (and one of them is free!) Digital Camera World

ReviewsThis twin-lens mirrorless camera kit has dropped to its lowest-ever price – now under £800! Digital Camera World

ReviewsFreewell Telephoto, Wide-angle, and Macro Lens Adapters for Fujifilm X100VI review Digital Camera World

ReviewsViltrox's Tiny 20mm f/2.8 Air Lens Comes to L-Mount Fstoppers

ReviewsWhy Manual Focus? The Guide for Photographers Only Shooting Digital The Phoblographer

GermanyVivo X Fold 6: Der Zeiss-Klapper im Test fotoMAGAZIN