| The
"L" brackets
for ball heads
by BJ Nicholls
tell
a friend about this article
|
L-Brackets
I'm
not a fan of big, bulky cameras and the last thing I thought
I'd want to do is add a bulky aluminum Arca-type L-bracket to
one of my cameras. But then we saw the light. During the 2nd
Nikonians Photo Adventure at Moab Utah, Nikonian Photo_phil
showed us an L-bracket that he had crafted for his F100. After
fighting clearance problems with my F100 and its single plate
with the wide platform on my Gitzo G1348 tripod, I saw the L-bracket
as a real convenience.
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| Really
Right Stuff B50L bracket for F100 without MB-15 power
grip |
With
the L-bracket it's much easier to work with your ballhead and
you have much more range of motion with the camera in a vertical
position.
Shown
in use on a Markins
M10 ball head , see how the vertical
and horizontal camera positions with the L-bracket are
centered over the tripod, having two integrated Arca Swiss
type plates.
The point of view hardly changes from either position
nor the axis of the center of gravity. |
. |
 |
You
can see on this right side image how I have to slide the
plate up to provide camera clearance with the ballhead
flopped to 90 degrees.
Also
note how far off-center the camera is when flopped over.
That off-axis position is terrible for shooting tiled
panoramas and its not nearly as stable. |
|
 |
Yes, the bracket is expensive, it adds
weight and is cold hard metal instead of the nice F100 working
surfaces. But for our needs now that we use the tripod for the
majority of shots, the L-bracket is worth the cost and the bulk.
Both
Really Right Stuff and Kirk make ones worth checking out. It
is never idle to note that either L-bracket require an Arca
Swiss type quick release clamp platform.
.. |
