Special Adapter for Just a Few of Us
Review by Fernando Santos
The newer Canon EOS R series cameras, like the R3, R6 Mk II, R7, R8, R10, and R50, all have a new flash hot shoe that includes additional functionality, thanks to a new 21-pin connector that can power shoe-mounted accessories, as well as provide two-way communications between the camera body and those accessories.
Even though the new hot shoe is compatible with existing flash units, some models like the EL-1, 80EX, 580EX II, 600EX, 600EX-RT, 600EX II-RT, ST-E3-RT, ST-E3-RT V2, and OC-E3 will not retain weather sealing. This means that if you use any of these models and you must work with a weather-sealed kit, you may seriously want to consider buying this inexpensive Canon Multi-Function Shoe Adapter AD-E1.
You may find conflicting information on the Internet that the mentioned camera models need this adapter to be able to use external flash units or even third-party flash triggers. In fact, that’s not the case: I tested a few flash units and triggers with my Canon R6 Mark II, and they worked as expected. You will need the AD-E1 adapter if you want to keep the weather sealing, but you don’t need it to actually use the existing flash units and triggers.
If you constantly attach accessories to the hot shoe, getting the Canon Multi-Function Shoe Adapter AD-E1, even if you don’t need weather sealing, may be a good idea, because it will be cheaper to replace the adapter than to repair the multifunction shoe. The adapter does add about 1″ to your camera height, so this may be a problem if your camera bag can’t take a pro-sized camera body. Even if it can, when you add the adapter to a gripped camera body (or similar in size), then you may need to remove the adapter from your camera before storing it back in the camera bag.
