Hot-shoe

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A hot-shoe is a small metal plate at the top of all Nikon dSLR cameras and most other SLR cameras, allowing the direct attachment of a flashgun. The hot-shoe holds the flashgun in place, and also sends triggering and other information. A dedicated flashgun gains a great deal of information, such as ISO, focal length and aperture through the hot-shoe, whereas a non-dedicated flashgun only receives a trigger to fire the flash.