I'm wondering what the masses have to say about this. How many bother using the plastic cover that slides over and protects the hot shoe contacts on top of your camera. Is it for looks, or do you feel the protection it provides is important. I have an Olympus Pen-F (pictured) with as you can see a matching silver plastic cover over the contacts. Well, maybe I should say I "had". I've looked everywhere it should be, and everywhere it shouldn't be. I kind of like the way it looks and I dont use flash that much, so I'm thinking of going to the trouble of painting a black one that I found silver. I do think Ill like the silver look, more than the black, but how necessary is it at all. Thanks for your responses.