An affordable 'L' bracket - at last!

[Naboo32]

Hi! I just wanted to share this rather exciting (to me at least) find with the good people of TP. But first, some history ....

I've been having trouble with image blur on long exposures (very annoying :bang, caused by slippage between the QR plate on my current ball head and the camera itself, when used tilted over in portrait orientation. Having discussed it with the experts here, the best solution was reckoned to be a tailored 'L' bracket to fit my main camera. Both Really Right Stuff and Kirk make these, but the RRS one costs £140 to import and the Kirk one is £120 :|. As I also wanted to buy a new ball head with an Arca-style clamp, this was outside of my budget.

Anyway, after several weeks of looking around for an alternative, I finally found an ebay seller offering a very high quality looking alternative to the 'named brand' versions, but for 'only' £75 . Here are the three different brackets:

Auction link ...

RRS link ...

Kirk link ...

OK, £75 is actually quite a lot of money for a bracket, especially when you consider that the Red Snapper ball head (c/w Arca QR plate), which I'm getting to complete the system, only costs £50. But, as I've been told repeatedly by other L bracket owners; it's something that you only buy once, works superbly and will last you a lifetime (provided that you don't upgrade your camera body ).

As a bonus, this bracket will also fit my D90 . It's not designed to and it does look a little awkward, as it doesn't sit flat against the camera base, but it doesn't twist round (due to the lip that runs along one edge) and is plenty secure enough for this light, plastic camera and the short lenses that I will be using with it. Lucky really, as I don't fancy paying another 60 or 70 quid for the correct one.

Anyway, here are some rather poor snapshots of the bracket, on both cameras (hand-held with only the light from one tungsten bulb, hence the overly-shallow DOF, high ISO and bluriness ).

On the D700:

On the D90 (just about ):

It seems that, right now, the ebay seller isn't listing one of these particular D700 (without grip) brackets, but he/she does have a few other L brackets available, as well as a whole load of other cool stuff . I'm not affiliated to the seller, BTW, I'm just a satisfied customer!

So, next week (when my Red Snapper RSH-12 ball head turns up), I'll be able to clamp the whole system together and try it out. From the components that I've received so far though, I can already see that this is going to be a smooth, strong and simple combination - just like me then !

Thanks for reading!

 

[seriousrikk]

I was looking at these - but ended up not bothering as there does not appear to be any way of getting the remote release cable out from the socket when the camera is fastened in portrait orientation.

I just bought the kirk L plate as that has a cutout for the remote. There may be enough room the put the cable alongside the body but that makes for a messy solution IMO and difficult to remove the remote without removing the plate..

 

[Naboo32]

I was looking at these - but ended up not bothering as there does not appear to be any way of getting the remote release cable out from the socket when the camera is fastened in portrait orientation.

I just bought the kirk L plate as that has a cutout for the remote. There may be enough room the put the cable alongside the body but that makes for a messy solution IMO and difficult to remove the remote without removing the plate..

That's the Canon version you're talking about I assume, Richard :shrug:!?

On the D700, the remote control shutter release attaches via a socket on the front of the camera, so that's not an issue here (although if you are attaching the camera to a PC, you might need one of the sockets under the side plate ).

Anyway, you're right, even the Nikon version is slightly different to the Kirk one, so I suppose that there might be consequences with this cheaper version :|. Good point!

 

[seriousrikk]

Ah, I didn't realise Nikon had the socket on the front - In which case you will have no problems I'm sure!

It's only if you need access to the side of the camera the design will present an issue. For USB, even the kirk one does not really give enough room for the cable to be safely attached.

 

[Naboo32]

Actually, I don't intend to keep the L bracket on the camera when I'm not using the tripod. It's only held on by one screw, so it's no hassle to whip it off and leave it in the bag with the tripod.

The problems (for me) with leaving it permanently attached are that;

a. I use the camera gripped/ungripped about equally and the bracket gets in the way of the grip.

b. The camera doesn't fit into either of its bags as well with the bracket on and the strap tends to get tangled up in it.

c. I adds weight and bulk when, if I'm out without the tripod (which is about 80% of the time), there's no need to have the bracket with me at all.


I know that most people with these brackets tend to just install them and then forget about them, but I have to be different !

 

[Naboo32]

Just thought I'd post another picture, now that I've got the (rather fab) Red Snapper ball head (with Arca clamp) to go with the L bracket. Very tight - no slop anywhere!

Even with a fairly big lens on (70-200mm f/2.8), it handles pretty well in portrait mode, although of course I would normally mount the camera via the lens foot and not in this way if I was using such a lens .

I wish I'd discovered this Arca-style clamping system earlier, as I modified and upgraded my old (square) QR plate a couple of times already, with limited success :|.