FAQs

The frio™ is available NOW in stores worldwide, and HERE directly from us. Sign up to the orbis^® newsletter to find out more and be in with a chance to win an orbis^® ringflash system. If you’re not into buying stuff online and would like to drop into your local camera store, click here for frio™ stockists Stateside, and here for frio™ shops in the rest of the world!

The frio™ coldshoe is the crucial connection between your hotshoe accessory and your lightstand, tripod, clamp or rig. Most commonly, your frio™ fits your off-camera flash to your lightstand. But it works with anything that has a male hotshoe connector, like many microphones, LED light panels, monitors, etc. to enable you to fit it to anything with a male 1/4″-20 standard tripod stud.

The frio™ coldshoe, not to be confused with a frio coldsore, is definitely something you should share with your friends.

The only universal coldshoe with a unique dual lock system, the frio™ gives you the assurance that your gear is safe and your shoot will never fall apart. The frio™ is the world’s first coldshoe designed from the ground up.

No other coldshoe has been custom-designed for your needs as a sophisticated photographer or videographer. Only the frio™ is universally compatible, so you you’ll never need to make your own modifications to make your gear securely fit your grip.

The frio™ coldshoe works with every hotshoe flash we’ve been able to lay our eager hands on, including the frankly bizarre Nikon SB900 with its “I look like all those other hotshoes but actually I’m really rather different thank-you-very-much” attitude.

The Canon 580EXII (known as the “Exy”) has muffin-hips, AKA a rain gasket. The Exy works differently with the frio™; the Slip’n'Click™ lock working with friction rather than popping back up. Thanks to the Exy’s muffin-hips you have to use a bit more force to engage the pin lock but it still works to ensure your Exy is as safe as houses.

As yet, the frio™ does not work with Sony/Minolta hotshoes (what were they thinking?!)

The frio™ coldshoe works with several umbrella swivels, including the world famous Justin Clamp. So to upgrade your brolly mounts so that you can fit your SB900 and shoot safe in the knowledge your gear is safe; go with one of these mounts from Manfrotto or Photoflex! A lot of brolly adapters have crappy coldshoes glued in place, which as we all know are basically useless without a frio™.

Frios™ are social creatures, with an instinctive preference for companionship. Seriously, you’ve probably got a couple of lightstands, or maybe a lightstand and a tripod. Ever had that feeling that you left the one bit of gear at home that you need? Of course you have. Get two or three frios™ and you’ll never have to rely on that funny looking passerby who can’t stand up straight to point your flash in the right direction. If your lightstands already have an old coldshoe on them, unscrew it and fit a frio™. The frio™ fits any hotshoe, perfect for multiflash and multimedia set ups.

Your a photographer or videographer right ? Why have a beer bottle opener on your keyring when you could have a frio™!? OK, maybe you should have both.

SLR Flash + frio™ + Light Stand = Heaven

Light Panel + frio™+ light Stand = HD Pleasure

orbis™+ SLR Flash+ frio™ +Tripod = Beautiful shadowless light

HDDSLR rig + frio™ + Microphone = Megan Fox in a swimming pool full of money

The possibilities are as limitless as your imagination.

The frio™ is the crucial connection between anything with a hotshoe and anything with a 1/4″-20 standard stud.

Flash + Tripod.

Flash + Lightstand.

Flash + Clamp.

Flash + Monopod.

HD Video microphone + Tripod.

Microphone + HD rig.

Microphone + Gorillapod™.

LED light panel + HD rig.

The list is almost endless. Only the frio™ keeps all your gear safe. The frio™: secure connection for your hotshoe accessories.

The frio™. Connect Combine Create.™

It’s metal. Plastic threads are a bad idea. The metal thread in the frio(tm) is built to withstand years of use and abuse.

It’s designed to do that. “WHAT THE ?!?!?!?” I hear you cry.. “You sold me something designed to break ?!?!”

YES!

Let me explain… we did a lot of stress testing of the frio™ during the design process so I guarantee that under normal use, your frio™ isn’t gonna break. And by normal use, I mean the kinda use that we photographers give our gear. I mean hard use. But under extreme shocks, like a lightstand falling over or a tree smacking your flash upside the head, the frio™ shoe is designed to break. That way your flash, which costs hundreds of dollars to fix, will often be saved by the frio™ breaking rather than the shoe, or even worse, the body of your flash.