Last Updated on 07/23/2011 by Chris Gampat
The Frio, the world’s first truly universal cold-shoe was on display at the Orbis booth at Photo Plus Expo. It’s a very simple product meant to be able to hold not only every flash as I discovered but also shotgun microphones. I’ll be requesting a review unit to test in studio with my Canon speedlites, but it seems to be promising right now as a product. It seems to be a really ideal item for studio and wedding photographers that need to mount their strobes all over the place and may sometimes not carry the foot mounts for their flashes. Being so small, it can easily fit into any pocket of your camera bag.
Just a quick intro: in order to mount your flash or microphone on the Frio all you’ll need to do it slip it in. For extra support and protection you can turn your locking wheels but you don’t really have it. In order to get the unit out of the Frio you’ll need to depress the back hump and slide it out. It can actually be a bit complicated but this works well for safety reasons. This also means that you’ll be able to mount a unit in all sorts of weird directions: perfect for boom microphones, wireless flashes, etc. The bottom allows you to screw the Frio onto any tripod, light stand, etc. I tried this together with the Orbis and my flash and the combination worked really lovely together.
What will really impress me is how this thing works on a gorillapod and other random accessories I’ve got in my bag. Take a look at this very quick gallery.