Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Looks cool. Saves you from having to buy a new L plate for each body upgrade.

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Pres ... lease.aspx

I like the look of this one mainly as it allows tethered shooting while in portait mode. Also it is arca Swiss made so it is sure to be nice and light but very high quality. I want to test this one out as soon as it comes out as I'm looking for an L-Plate for my cameras already. I have hesitated on getting any as I can't test them out anywhere. I have yet to see a RRS L-Plate and be aby to hold it and I have only seen the acratech on in a display case. I would love to compare them all on both my D700 and D80 and F100. A universal is a much nicer idea to me then a camera specific one.

I like the look of this one mainly as it allows tethered shooting while in portait mode. Also it is arca Swiss made so it is sure to be nice and light but very high quality. I want to test this one out as soon as it comes out as I'm looking for an L-Plate for my cameras already. I have hesitated on getting any as I can't test them out anywhere. I have yet to see a RRS L-Plate and be aby to hold it and I have only seen the acratech on in a display case. I would love to compare them all on both my D700 and D80 and F100. A universal is a much nicer idea to me then a camera specific one.

You can see my acratech one in a few days when I get my whole system setup.

From initial glance, the critical flaw I see in this is that the camera plate is not 'standard' acra swiss style, but is 'proprietary' arca swiss with holes for the l-bracket to slide into. That means you have to go to one source for the camera plates, and it's not even clear if they are custom. The weakness with a generic arca swiss camera plate is that if it lacks a lip or something where it meets the camera body, the body is still prone to rotating around the plate when in portrait, especially with a heavy lens attached.

That would be very nice to see as I really would love to pick one up and feel how it is in my hands. I have been debating between the RRS and the Acratech for a few months now but I am hesitant only due to not feeling it and experiancing it other than in pictures online. I have heard praise for both systems but I am a very tactile person which leads me not not trust anything without testing it out.

Well, I just got the acratech extended L-bracket by mail today. It is a special order item directly from acratech only, so it's not the same one you saw at Vistek. Unfortunately, my camera plates (not from acratech) are on order from elsewhere, so I can't use it yet. Yes, this is the price of using the Sony oddball system, but at this point my entire arca swiss system is an oddball mix of manufacturers.

EDIT: Seems acratech has updated their website to allow ordering of the extended l-bracket.

First impressions: it's nice. But I need to see what it's like with the cameras mounted.

The problem I now have is choosing a new ballhead. The RRS BH-55 sounds tempting (while admittedly expensive). The problem I have right now with my Manfrotto 488 is that I really need to tighten the ball all the way so it doesn't move. How much effort is required on the RRS ball to go from free to locked?

The likely flaw is that I do not believe I can use the lever clamp because my plates are going to be a mix of acratech (l-bracket), kirk (maxxum 9), mestos (a900, a700), and possible another, depending on what I choose for my collared lenses. To quote RSS:



It might work, but I would have to try my plates first on someone's lever clamp first. The ones I'm most worried about are the Korean Mestos ones. Of course the screw clamp is the secondary option.

It looks like the new arca-swiss L bracket comes in two styles:

1) Which is an arca-swiss clamp, and you can use most any(based on
fit) arca-swiss compatible camera plate.
2) A bracket based on a universal camera plate

It looks like the clamp and the plate are interchangeable, so that if you
got one you can probably purchase the other as an accessory. I don't
like the clamp style because you must get a plate that works within its
tolerance; whereas a screw type clamp will adapt to any plate.
One good thing about this new bracket is how compact it looks; and you
probably will not notice it as much when shooting as compared to the othe
types of L brackets.