Signal output of hot shoe contacts for a custom project.

[DFO]

Greetings. First post on SAF.

I'm thinking about developing a filter mounted or hot shoe mounted device that I can control with the shutter button. Do any of the hot shoe contacts or other outputs (wired or otherwise) on a Sony Alpha body send a signal when the shutter button is pressed or half pressed? Ideally I'd need a 'Momentary On' signal that matches the shutter half press or back button press.

TIA

[XKAES]

Some Sony models have a standard PC connection in addition to the flash shoe.  There might be a list somewhere.

[FunWithCameras]

The PC socket only provides shutter full-press, not half-press, unfortunately.

For what it's worth, I believe the entire A7R family, the A1, and the A9 family all have the PC socket - the latest member of each family definitely does (interestingly, always next to the HDMI socket). Unsure about the A7 family. I don't think the APS-C cameras do (the A6700 definitely doesn't), and I don't think the A7C family does.

The other place you might be able to get the signal is from the micro-USB that has other connections (it's a weird beast with multiple additional connections to support things like a cable remote).