What happened to the tripod mount?

[glyn r]

Cameras use to have a small recess in the base in front of the tripod screw to prevent the body rotating as it is fitted

or to prevent the weight of the lens rotating the body on the base plate. Tripods have the peg which fits this recess,

my quick change plates have this too. The last camera I had with one was an Olympus E-300. I now have to screw

the camera so tight to be sure it wont rotate in portrait view that I worry about damaging the base plate. This is a

problem with the longer lenses 70-300 zoom with no tripod mount for the lens. How can something which costs

nothing just disappear?

[ronald_moravec1]

They look everywhere for cost reductions.

 

It is not a nothing cost. It is a machining operation with set up, tooling, machine time, and labor.

[joseph_wisniewski]

Glyn, it's not an issue of what "cameras used to have". 35mm still cameras never had this very handy feature (or if some did, they're so obscure that I don't know which ones had it), but most video cameras did. You can go back 60 years, and Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Pentax, etc. film and digital cameras didn't have it. Your E-300 was only the second DSLR to ever have it, the Oly E-1 being the first.

 

What camera do you have now? Since you're posting in the Sony forum, it appears you've switched away from Oly. If so, you lost this cool Oly feature. There are two ways to get it back. Go to a good camera tech, and have the hole installed. This will involve removing the camera's baseplate, drilling a larger hole, and adding a steel or brass insert containing the correctly sized hole. Typical charge would be about $100. That's about what I'd charge...

 

The other way, the way I use with all my current equipment, is to use Arca Swiss style quick releases. Now, apparently you have a tripod with a head that has the pin to engage that hole. That tells me you have a rather low end tripod, one that was built to do "double duty" with both video and still cameras. What brand and model is it?

 

You add an Arca "clamp" to the tripod's head. These clamps range from about $60 to $120. Manufactures include Markins, Acratech (I believe they make the very best one), RRS, Novoflex, Kirk Engineering. Then you add an Arca "plate" to the camera. The plates are machined with lips that wrap up against the back of the camera (and sometimes both the back and the front of the camera), and they screw down hard with an Allen screw, and won't rotate. The best ones have both a front and back lip, and are machined for specific cameras. I have one of those for my D3 and D200. These plates can range from about $40 to $200.

 

Because the plate wraps from bottom to both the front and back of the camera, it really "locks" the camera into place, and the only way the camera can twist is if you hit it with a hammer so hard you tear apart the baseplate of the camera. Here's a plate with a front and a back lip, same one I have on my Nikon D3. It cost me $55...

 

http://www.markinsamerica.com/MA5/P3U.php

 

And here's a generic plate for any large camera with a curved back lip. It's what I use on my Nikon D2X. Unfortunately, Markins only makes the "2 lip plates" for a few of the more popular Nikon and Canon models. For your Sony, you'd have to go through the generic "plate finder" and find one of the single lip plates to fit your camera. They do have plate recommendations for A100, A200, and A700.

 

http://www.markinsamerica.com/MA5/PG-50.php

 

Theoretically, because that plate only has a back lip instead of both a front and a back, it could come loose and twist a few degrees. Practically, I've had the Nikon D2X (which is a lot heavier than any Sony body) with lenses like the 135mm f2.0 or 85mm f1.4 (both a lot heavier than your 70-300) sideways many times, and the single lip plate has never twisted. They're much sturdier than "no lip" plates with rubber or cork pads. I don't worry about it.

 

The same companies that make Arca clamps also make Arca plates. My favorite plates are Markins. They take a "minimalist" approach, so the plates are small and unobtrusive.

 

So, sorry, either way you solve your problem (modify a camera, or convert to Arca hardware) you're going to spend $100 to $150.

 

And Ronald, you see conspiracies everywhere. It was a feature that no one ever thought to add, not one that was eliminated as a "cost reduction". For cameras with cast metal bases, it really would be a "free" feature.

[ablyth]

My old Soligor lens (a long heavy one) had such a tripod screw attachment, that balanced the whole thing nicely on the tripod. I certainly wish there was something available for today's gear.

[paul_de_ley]

Like Joseph says, 35mm film bodies never had the recess as far as I'm aware of.

 

As to qr plates, I haven't gone up to lubricant-free pro ballheads yet but am using bogen 490 and 486 heads with

big RC4 qr plates. The plates lack the body locking peg but have a thick rubber pad and can be screwed rrrreally

tight

into the body (as well as providing my left hand with significantly better holding options than the body by

itself). Haven't had my a100 budge on me yet even with a 2 lbs 60-300 zoom pulling down on it.

 

They also allow for using both a 1/4" and 3/8" screw in one plate so you can double-lock them into mounts of

heavy lenses that come with both thread size holes.

[joseph_wisniewski]

Andrew, most long heavy lenses do have exactly what you describe. They're referred to as "tripod collars". My Nikon 70-200mm f2.8, 20kmm f4 macro, and 300mm f2.8 have it. My old Sigma 500mm f4.5 and Vivitar 500-800mm zoom cat (a really strange lens) also had it.

 

Kirk Engineering used to make clamp on tripod collard for a few popular heavy lenses that didn't have them.

[joseph_wisniewski]

Paul, if I think of it this weekend, I'll post pictures of some of the "cruel and inhuman" things I've done to RC-4 plates. The one I did for my FM2 is an absolute work of art...

 

You can order extra Bogen style captive screws from B&H or other well stocked camera stores. I did this back when I used them on the 70-200mm f2.8 and 200mm f4, both of which has two 1/4 inch screw holes.

[glyn r]

Thank you for all this information.