I am still happy as a pig in dirt with the z30... but.... it seems that
the top hotshoe is not-quite-standard... or I've missed something in
the setup of the camera.
I bought a Wein HSHSB adapter to electrically isolate my ring flash
from the camera and... it doesn't work. It works fine on my nikon FM. I
don't want to try any of my venerable Vivitar (also a Panasonic
product) flashes on the z30 so I'm looking for other ways to achieve my
goal... probably by grinding down the front of the hotshoe mount 2mm. I
have tried turning it backwards and unscrewing the front plate. If
there is a menu that switches the hotshoe off or on, I've missed this.

Someone out there  with insight?

David