Has anyone tried Neewer arca Swiss compatible plates?

[chuck]

I am looking in particular at a Neewer replacement tripod foot for the Nikon 70-200 VRii, which costs 1/4 as much as Kirk enterprise's

equivalent. Like the Kirk foot, it doesn't need an plate. The foot can slot directly into an Arca Swiss style clamp.

 

I know there is nothing to a plate and everyone ought to be able to make one that works as well as any others. But I know really shabby

aluminum forging can come with cracks that would swiftly expand until bits separate. Given newer is so cheap, has anyone had any

problems with it?

 

Thanks?

[howard_m]

<p>Haven't tried it but I wouldn't be putting a $2400 lens on a cheap-ass plate made of crappy pot metal. </p>

<p>Take a look at:<br>

promediagear.com<br>

hejnar<br>

sunwayfoto</p>

 

[Ed_Ingold]

<p>Why would you go cheap to support a $2500 lens? RRS plates are CNC machined from hard aircraft grade aluminum, not cast. AFIK, all of RRS' products are machined, not cast, for precision, durability and light weight. Would you look for bargains in caribiners and pitons?</p>

[stephen t]

<p>I'm using some of their smaller plates on some "non-critical" bodies, and haven't had a problem. However, I use the RRS plates on my "critical" lenses and bodies. </p>

<p>I thought they were CNC machined, not cast, though. They look nice, and so far have worked fine.</p>

<p>I do pay top dollar for my caribiners, though!!</p>

[chuck]

<p>I got the tripod foot. It was $19. So it was worth paying the $19 just to get a good look at it and see how well it is made.<br>

It was not cast. It was clearly very nicely machined and smoothly hard anodized. The edges of all the parts are given a very nicely machined roundedness. No rough side or edges anywhere. It has a very large nob with rubberized grip for tightening the clamp that holds the 70-200. The feeling of the nob was smoother than the same nob on Nikon's own tripod foot. It slides and clamps into the Nikon lens very precisely and firmly. The bottom of the foot has the Arca Swiss style dove tail shape and the 2 safety hex screws. My sample didn't come with the hex wrench to undo these screws. So this tripod foot, for all it's low price, does not appear to have taken any shortcuts in the quality of the manufacture. It also looks quite nice.<br>

But, it was not any beefier, and does not appear to be noticeable more rigid, than the tripod foot that came with the lens. So the only advantage it offers over the Nikon tripod foot, besides a larger and nicer rubberized nob for tightening the clamp that connects the foot to the lens, is it clamps directly into Arca Swiss clamp, at >1/2 the cost of most Arca Swiss compatible plates. And requiring as it does a much complicated piece of machining, to say nothing of moving parts to clamp onto the lens, the Neewer foot certainly deserves its $19 price a hell of a lot more than any of the big name inert aluminum arca swiss dovetail plates that cost $45-80 could possibly do. </p>

 

[stephen t]

<p>Chuck, that's been my experience as well. Glad you are pleased with it.</p>