L Brackets - brands?

<p>Historically I have limited myself to RRS and Kirk. Nowadays you see all these other brands, any others worth considering? Interesting I have seen Sunwayfoto more expensive and others like Surui and unnamed products. Opinions? </p>

<p>I have used RRS and a few of the cheap brands from ebay, including Sunwayfoto. RRS is by far the nicest and most well constructed on the L brackets. But the cheap ones are adequate and seem to do the job almost as well. The fact that RRS L brackets are made for one model camera is a huge positive as far as getting a product that does not twist and fits well. It's also a negative if you wish to keep the bracket and use it on your next camera. I use RRS on my D800 and the cheaper ones on my film cameras and OMD-EM5.</p>

<p>These days I use Kirk's L- brackets and tripod collars. To me they're marginally lighter and just as strong as those from RRS. You can sometimes find Kirk's products in the used dept. of B&H at substantial savings.</p>

<p>I use an RRS and Kirk L brackets on my D800e's. The fit and finish of both products are excellent and they do not twist out of position, even on long trips.</p>

<p>I use a cheaper brand (Neewer) on my A7R. The fit is good and it seems to do an adequate job. Note however that I do not use my A7R under the same conditions as my D800e's--which is why I thought the cheaper brand would be adequate to begin with.</p>

<p>IMHO, for your main bodies, stick with the RRS or Kirk. For bodies that you only use occasionally the less expensive ones should be adequate.</p>

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<p>I use RRS plates and brackets exclusively. Kirk and some others have similar quality, but may not be perfectly compatible with RRS clamps. Small differences in width make the use of lever operated clamps problematic. If you mix brands, you should use knob (screw) operated clamps.</p>

<p>With the A7Rii, I rarely need a tripod at all. Nonetheless the RRS L-bracket is installed, if only as a roll bar, or if I need to get the most of every pixel.</p>

<p>I suspect you won't be interested in this, but hey: I use flash a lot on my film cameras, and my favorite bracket is the Leica CTOOM, in metal, not the plastic version. You can put a knob in the center hole and it fits cameras with a more normal center screw. It's like a shoe-fit on Leicas, but useful on any camera. It's just a stupid thing, but very well made and versatile, and built, in Leica fashion, like a tank. It's adjustable, and you can set it so it holds where you want, but is easily movable to the various positions. I haven't tried it on any of my digital Nikons, but it probably fits. They're often under $25 on Ebay.</p>

 

<p>I use one of the pretty low-priced Chinese L brackets on my NEX-6. Other than wishing it had indexing marks, I've got no problems with it. Not sure the actual brand, they seem to be available under a wide variety of names/sources. I only have the kit lens for the NEX-6 so weight/balance aren't much of an issue. </p>

<p>For my new D7200 I will likely stick to RRS, Kirk or Hejnar. Still looking at the way they handle the left side hook-ups between them. The big reason there is I have and use the 70-300 vr G and it's a balance concern, especially zoomed out so I'm more concerned about general material strength and quality. My clamps are screw types so not too concerned about plate variations in the good brands.</p>

<p>I have RRS brackets on both my D5100 and D7100. My only complaint is that the bracket on the D7100 does not have a cutout on the base which would allow mounting of my wired shutter release/intervalometer. I will either get out my Dremel and make the cutout, or find another work-around for very long exposures. Note that RRS makes a "universal" bracket that appears to be interchangeable between a wide variety of camera bodies. Make sure your particular body does not have an overhang or other projections that might interfere with the retention lip on the back edge of the bracket. You can download a full-scale drawing of any bracket from the RRS website to check fit.</p>

I use RRS L brackets on my cameras. Upside: they fit perfectly and look good. Downside: price. I hav also tried The Arca-

Swiss, Hejnar and Novoflex.

 

Novoflex Casteel L: upside: well machined and the blue anodizing looks pretty. Downsides: the foot width was too narrow for anything but other brands' screw drive clamps and even then it may be too narrow for every screw drive clamp. Also there was no way to lock orientation to the camera body. The second may not be an issue if you use light weight body and lens combinations or don't shoot

stitched panoramas.

 

Hejnar: bought it for use on a D810 but neither the short or tall side bars were well matched to the D810. I gave it and a clamp to an assistant for his D800. He seems to have had good luck with it. This is a bracket that like the most recent RRS designs is a two piece bracket.

 

Arca-Swiss: most innovative design. I like how the side bar and L rails are seperate pieces from the main plate and you

do not need a hex wrench (L-spanner) to connect or disconnect the pieces. The height and width of the bracket can be

easily adjusted for different camera bodies and you can partially slide the L bars out from the main plate without impairing

overall rigidity. You can buy a single complete L bracket for one camera and then just add additional main plates for

additional cameras. This saves space and weight and cash. Downside: the main plate is tapped to hold an orientation pin

but not all camera bodies are likewise tapped for a pin and if your camera body is not one of those that A-S took into

account, you'll have to have a machine shop tap the camera plate for you.