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Why you should use an L Bracket for your camera

Why you should use an L Bracket for your camera

I use an L Bracket on all of my professional cameras. In this video, I share why you should use an L Bracket for your camera. There are two styles of camera plates. The basic flat plate which is widely used by the majority of photographers everywhere, and then the L Bracket. The L camera bracket wraps around from the bottom of the camera to the side of the camera. Many times these plates are custom-designed for specific camera bodies, with and without battery grips. My preferred mount is Arca Swiss, which is a universal standard for tripods.

Transcription was done by Descript‘s automated transcription services which means it’s an AI-generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar, and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.

Let’s talk about why you might want to use an l bracket instead of our standard tripod plate. Hey, this is Scott one gif with a storyteller, with a camera talking about all the things photographers like you and I are thinking about. In this video, we’re going to be talking about an l bracket versus a standard plate and why you might prefer an l bracket over a standard plate. Let’s dive into this thing. So if you’ve been following my videos, if you’ve been following my work for a very long time, then you know that I am a big fan of l brackets. These are, this is an l bracket. The, it looks like an l, it goes down across the side and then under the camera. And today I want to talk about why. Why do I prefer an l bracket over a standard plate for a tripod?

So this is a standard plate. This plate would go on the bottom of your camera. And now all of my plates are Arca Swiss. Every single one I have is Arca Swiss. No matter the brand, I always get Arca Swiss heads. And Arca Swiss, uh, mounted plates because it’s universal. It’s universal. I could use it on any camera. I can use it on any product. Uh, if I wanna use it on a flash, I could do that and it’ll fit on any tripod and so on. It’s very versatile because it’s universal. This is an Arca Swiss head from Colorado tripod company, but it’s actually on a really rice stuff, travel tripod right now. I do have really rice stuff heads that I use that are on, especially on the camera that’s a holding on the tripod that’s holding my camera, my neck on z six right now. And there’s a, a pretty heavy duty, really rice stuff, ball head on it.

I also have a travel size, a little bit more compact than this ball had that’s on, um, normally on my travel tripod, but I switched it for this purpose. Um, just to show the versatility of Arca Swiss. Now this plate is also the one that came with this. This is the Colorado tripod company, uh, Arca Swiss General Arca Swiss plates. And there is a screw on the bottom that has a flat head slit in it, so you can use a flathead screwdriver, but it is also a little, uh, you know, floppy thing that you can grab in and twisted if you don’t want to use a try. Um, a screwdriver, this will go on the bottom of your camera and then you would just place it in there and you would screw it down. There’s a turn. This for you, there is actually a, there’s three knobs on this.

On this ball head. You’ve got the one that will just turn like this. You have one that will loosen the ball head and then you have one that actually will lock the plate in. And this part, this particular head also has a ball level right into this knob. So that’s kind of a nice feature that you can level right there with the ball level. You don’t need one, you don’t need to use your camera’s built in leveler and you don’t need to put one on top of your hot shoe. You’re good to go. This is so this is an Arca Swiss mount right now. The the thing is when you mount a camera on this, we are using a standard plate. Now your camera can be landscape, it can be horizontal. Let’s imagine that I have a standard plate on the bottom of my Nikon d and 50 let’s imagine that there’s no l bracket instead of an l bracket.

It’s just a standard plate. I put it in here, I tighten it down. Now let’s say that I want to go ahead and do a portrait. I want to do, I want to take some photos in portrait, right? So turned right on its side. Now with a standard plate for me to do that, I now need to unlock the ball head and go like this so you can see that it’s not perfectly portrait but it is or vertical, but it is in that general direction. You can see that it’s actually slightly angled. It’s actually going up a little bit because the ball head doesn’t allow it to go down all the way. There’s an advantage because with the ball head is as quick to just do that. But there’s a downside. First of all, it’s not perfectly portrait mode is not perfectly uh, vertical, but second it’s no longer perfectly stable.

Now there’s a lot of weight on one side of the tripod. It’s all weighted towards that side. It’s not even. So if there’s some vibration you’re going to see it on one side, you know the tripods are going to start giving a little bit on one side versus the other. If somebody bumps into it is now you know, heavier on one side versus the other. So this is not ideal. It’s okay for for speed purposes, but it’s not ideal for precision and accuracy and it’s not ideal for just stability overall. The l bracket is basically a combination of the bottom plate and aside bracket and you can see there’s Arcos with grooves on this one and as artists with groups on this one, if you are a Manfrotto user, yes there are a l brackets for man photos, but most of the l brackets are for Arca.

Swiss plates are Arca Swiss mounts. So that’s what’s actually on here as well on my Nikon to get 50. Both of these are made by really right stuff. There’s a lot of companies who make these, uh, I think there’s one called Kirk that makes, that makes these, I think there’s a variety. I think three legged thing has them. I think photo DX has them. So a lot of companies make l brackets now. Really right stuff has always made pretty heavy duty m l brackets and they’re made in the United States and completely sourced and manufactured in the United States, which I love. These have always been uh, on the heavier side, but more recently they’ve been making what they call ultra light l brackets where there are no frills there. One solid piece of lightweight but heavy duty, strong aluminum. And they’re coated, but they don’t add much weight to your camera, which is a nice thing.

So I have the ultra light version on the neck, hundred 80 d at 50. And for my Nikon Z six which I don’t have on right now for this video right now I have on my neck on z six the spider light plate because it has arca Swiss built in, but it also has the pin for the spider holster. So added benefit, but I have a solution for that. If you want me to nail bracket in a little bit, you got the l bracket on the tripod. Now you want to go to vertical. Let’s say you are perfectly level, everything is perfectly leveled with the tripod, the camera’s level and you want to go to portrait. Instead of you having to turn the ball head because it’s already leveled, you would just unscrew, take off your camera, slide it in vertical, tighten it back down and now all the, the weight is still centered for the tripod.

This stability is at its maximum. Everything that you need from a tripod from your camera is perfectly balanced, perfectly balanced, like a fine cup of tea. So that’s the main reason to use an l bracket so that you have stability, balance and precision. Now who would need such a thing? Well, first of all, landscape photographers. It makes life so much better for you. If you’re a headshot photographer or any sort of portrait photographer that’s always using a tripod, then this is ideal for you because if not much fast slower to switch to the, you know, the l part, the CR, the the side mount of the l bracket than it is to just loosen the ball ahead and turn it. So if you can just do that, then you’re going to have a more uh, precision with leveling and comfort and whatnot for your portraits when you’re using the tripod.

If you’re a macro photographer, if you do product photography, this is also perfect for you because you got precision, you need precision. If you liked this video, click that subscribe button below. Right now I publish new videos every Monday and Thursday whenever possible. You don’t want to miss it. I just want to leave you with this. I recommend using an l bracket for anybody who use a tripod on a regular basis. If you don’t, then just use a standard one. If you’re not have heavy duty tripod use, use a standard plate. That’s fine, but I want to show you some other things. This is another plate. This is from spider hole story as well. This is actually for the foot of a lens that has a tripod mountain. So the longer 70 to 200 lenses and whatnot, uh, and beyond what have a foot. This is actually meant to go on the bottom of that foot.

It also has an Arca Swiss, uh, mount in here or sorry, the grooves for an Arca Swiss. So this can go right in the tripod and it has the pin for the spinal holster. This is the spider pro plate that has the pin for the spider holster. And the only reason why I’m showing this to you is because the version that is the spider light version, which is currently on my Nikon z six, which I can’t show you cause I’m recording with the camera. The differences, the spider light version is a little bit smaller, has one spot for a pin nut two and has grooves for the Arco Swiss Mount. So it is an artist’s was plate as a bonus spider holster. And lastly, if you are a spider holster user, which hopefully you are, then you should check out the spider pro clamp. This thing actually is a basically an Arca Swiss mount for an l bracket.

Pretty much it’s what it is. Let me show you. So let’s say you have a spider holster on your hip and you want to hang your camera, even though it has an l bracket that’s not a spider holes to l bracket. Maybe one day they’ll make a spider store l bracket, but you want to have uh, be able to have your pin. There’s option for two pins and you wanna, you know, be able to use it with your truck, with your camera that has no bracket. You’d basically take this, slide it onto your l bracket at the bottom and tighten it down like it’s the ball head of a tripod. And now you have your camera hanging at your hip using the sweater holster and when you need to quickly remove it and get back to a tripod or whatnot and you just unscrew it and take it right off.

This is what I use on a regular basis with my Nikon z six and my Nikon d at 50 on a regular basis. Now, spider holster did not sponsor this video. I am a spider holster ambassador. I am honestly just recommending the product because I actually do really love it. But that’s why I use an l bracket and that’s why I recommend that you use an l brackets. I use all the products, the l brackets, then tripods from really the right stuff. You may not want to spend that kind of money, but there’s a lot of brands who make it including three legged thing and a bunch of others. So just Google l bracket try button. But getting Arca Swiss because then to universal. And if you ever change tripod brands, most likely even man Frodo now is doing Arca Swiss mounts. So yeah, and I’ll see you in the next video.

By Scott

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