Summary

I got annoyed at not having a bounce flash at a recent family photo event and didn't want to buy a proper flash so FTIJPI! This is inspired from numerous other bounce flash designs here on Thingiverse as well as commercially available, but mine was designed from scratch in Tinkercad to my needs and makes a very functional and small yet inexpensive addition to your camera bag.

My Sony NEX-7 Bounce Flash Block holds the stock pop-up flash in a vertical position while blocking direct flash on your subject, effecting a bounce flash off of the ceiling. No need to tinker the flash into the right vertical position when deploying, just release the flash as normal and the arm catches and holds the flash up in the right position (when fully seated in the hotshoe slot). This bounce flash block also eliminates the lens shadow experienced when using anything longer than the pancake lens on the NEX-7 (if you have this camera then you know what I'm talking about).

While standard flash units with a tilt up bounce effect are surely better, this costs literally a few cents worth of PLA (instead of $100+ flash unit), 30-40 minutes even printed slow, and as the pictures show gives a surprisingly good bounce effect. I toyed with a diffuser panel that snapped into place on top in a different version of this design, but the effect was even worse than straight stock flash so I scrapped it and kept it simple, stupid.

Depending on your slicer/print settings, the hotshoe mount section may need light filing/sanding (key or fingernail files) to fine tune the fit, and of course a well-calibrated printer and printing the entire print at the same slow speed will improve print consistency for this small print. Print front-of-camera face down as STL should be when opened and unlike my early version example pics above show don't print it with a horrible elephants foot first layer.

I printed this with 3mm thick walls, 2.4mm thick top/bottom, a brim, 25% infill so it was sturdy using a 0.6mm nozzle using whatever PLA I had laying around (most common nozzle sizes should print this design just fine, 0.6 not required it's just my favorite lately). I recommend printing in such a way that the hotshoe section is 100% solid for strength (thus my 3mm thick walls).

Your makes posted-linked, improved photos, and of course donations all welcome. Enjoy.