Rick,

I understand and concur, and the shade does have it's drawbacks, like you can't use it without the cold shoe and clip, and that's a lot of trouble. In other words, you can't use it like a regular dark cloth. It is expensive. However, it does protect the camera as well or better than anything in adverse conditions and serve as a good lens shade.

If you were inclined to attach a cold shoe AND needed that protection, it might be worth it. For honesty's sake, I hardly ever use mine unless it's raining or snowing.

I posted my reply because the OP said he didn't understand how it functioned (or that's what it amounted to). My reply is probably not going to be useful to him as you note, but who knows? Something similar might be devised, and the information might be useful to someone else.

And IMO, the Ebony shade would be far better to adapt than those silly tripod arms to hold umbrellas described in some books!

Cheers, Steve