Years ago, when I was shooting an aviation story for the National Geographic, I was clamping Speedlights over all manner of high priced flying hardware. And they were falling off, given the cheeseball nature of some of the clamping solutions I was using.
I complained to Justin Stailey, then of the Bogen/Manfrotto company about those clamps, and he traveled over to my studio in Dobbs Ferry, NY, with a bag of bits and pieces, gleaned from the inventory shelves of Manfrotto. We perused and cobbled together a cold shoe clamp for Speedlights. (Trust me, it wasn’t rocket science.)
It became known as the Justin Clamp, or, the 175F, for those inclined to do an internet search, and has been widely used for years. But, as hot shoe flashes have grown more robust over the years, its weakness, the plastic cold shoe, became more readily apparent.
Enter the new kid–the Manfrotto 175F-2. Catchy, huh? It has the same basic principles as the original, but it’s now blessedly got a metal locking mount atop the omni-directional ball head. Twist the rotating ring, and the metal plates of the cold shoe lock down on the flash like Jaws on Quint.
Handy, especially if you are using the Profoto A series, which is the big guy on the block for versatile, hot shoe style flashes. Another good thing? Manfrotto also makes the clamping jaws a feature of the simple cold shoe tilt head (minus the clamp), which you can affix to a stand, or plug onto a super clamp for that extra assurance that the flash won’t fall into the ocean, or get sucked into the fan belt, or slip off a support and drop into a fire, or go flying off the clamp and into someone’s lap in the audience.
Not that any of that stuff has ever happened to me.
Flashes on clamps. Tucked away in improbable places. A world of trouble awaits!
More tk…..
Jaws on Quint!!!
Hooper drives the boat, chief!
I have a number of justin clams…Can you change out the existing cold shoe tilt head with the new one described ?
And hopefully the good folks at Manfrotto have come up with a solution to keep the spigot from pulling out of the shoe. The press fit of the original wasn’t worth much. Someday, someone will come up with the perfect flash foot/shoe combo.
Good question..i will ask and see….
You’re gonna need a bigger clamp…I mean boat…
Proud owner… love mine!
Joe I am old but how many of your followers today know the reference Jaws on Quint?
You and me, Bill…..the references of our generation. 🙂
You only have me by five months and three days Joe. So yes, I got the reference.
I like the idea of being able to clamp my speedlights just any old way. So thanks for making me aware of this new model.
They are damn handy….
They are like the American Express Card, I do not leave home without them! Unlike the AMEX that I do not qualify to have.
Wow, two comments in a row, sorry Joe, had to catch up. Early january I got covid and I just came back to my computer. Have to say, some very hard days, but thankfully I went thru. Back to the clamp. It’s amazing, a great invention, I have one and it’s great for those tight and weird places where using a stand is out of the question. Perfect to be used in shelfs and tables specially when doing environmental portraits. Well done Joe.
I bought my first Justin Clamp on your recommendation. The cheap spline pressed cold shoe pulled out dropping an SB-910 8′ to the ground (thankfully still working but clouded the display). I have since replaced the cold shoe on all my Justin Clamps with what I believe to be the fines Cold Shoe available the Wimberley AP-7.
Oddly discontinued now, in 2022.