I bought an Acratech ultimate ball head a little while back, but I have not used it yet. The main reason being that I have not bought QR plates for it.
It has an AS style QR clamp on it. I would need two plates, one for my Sigma 180 macro, and one for the body of the camera.
What plates would you suggest? I have thought about getting some with safety pins, would you suggest that?
I can vouch for Kirk products! I love the custom L-Brackets and have used them on several bodies now and also I’ve had all my lenses fitted with the replacement lens feet and collars! I also use many other Kirk products as I find their quality is awesome and 100% reliable!
Hi Nathan. I've been pleased with Really Right Stuff's plates. I have them for both my camera bodies and my Sigma 180. Mine have safety pins, though they've never been put to the test.
I have RRS & Kirk plates. They are both very good and worth every dollar they cost. I imagine that is true for some other suppliers, but I have no experience with them.
For me, there is no value in safety features on Arca-Swiss plates. I cultivated the habit of checking for positive engagement whenever I mount something in the clamp AND whenever I move a set-up. I haven't had anything fall out of a clamp. The only plates I have that came with with "safety" features are some long lens plates from RRS. I find them more of an annoyance than a help. I don't always want to slide forward into the clamp and I never want to open it wide enough to drop in from the top (one of my clamps will come apart), but those are the only choices with that style of "safety stop." Any additional step, or rule in the mounting procedure defeats a bit of the quick release feature for me. I do best with a single set of rules. I have standardized on a procedure that does not include mechanical safety features. The RRS stops are just single screws which are easily be removed. I have done just that.
All that aside, get a plate for that macro lens! You will never go back. The ability to do coarse framing with the ball head, then fine tune with the lens collar is not unique to the AS system, but it sure works well there. You also have a crude focus rail in the forward facing AS clamp.
I have Wimberly, Kirk, and Acratech plates. I would say that they all are about equal in build quality. Some plates have the double dovetail groove, which can make them more versatile for clamping on things like flash brackets. All other things being equal, I'd go with plates with that feature, which I believe originated with RRS.
Slightly off-topic, but if you use a neckstrap on the camera and wrap it around the leg of the tripod, it will act as a last resort catch should the camera/lens fall off while moving the tripod. It is not perfect, won't help if everything is vertical, might be a bit slower/inconvenient depending on your shooting style, but won't hurt anything.
Nathan: I have both Kirk and RRS plates and will be buying an L-plate for my A700 from RRS only because Kirk doesn't offer one yet. The L-plate for my A100 is a Kirk and the only reason I chose it over the RRS was it was $10 cheaper. For my lenses I have one RRS plate that lives on my 200 macro. It does have the safety stop which does come in handy for me when shooting macro. The plate is long enough that it acts as a poor man's focusing rail. I'll often have the camera pointed down and also have the rail backed out a bit. When I release it to slide it back down there is some comfort knowing it won't just slide on out accidentally. I'll also use that plate when I have my 300 f2.8 aboard simply because its so heavy that I don't want any risk. The Kirk plate for the 300 is fine and I'm content with it but if I know I won't be using the macro I'll often swap plates since the RRS is longer. I'm pretty disciplined in the field so like Pete I have a system that makes screw ups unlikely but I can also get distracted and/or clumsy and it would be hard for me to replace either the 200 or 300. I may even buy another RRS plate for the 300 to save me the trouble of swapping. Build quality is equally good IMO. >=))>
Discussion
9 repliesI bought an Acratech ultimate ball head a little while back, but I have not used it yet. The main reason being that I have not bought QR plates for it.
It has an AS style QR clamp on it. I would need two plates, one for my Sigma 180 macro, and one for the body of the camera.
What plates would you suggest? I have thought about getting some with safety pins, would you suggest that?
Thanks in advance.
Nathan
I like Kirk's L-bracket for the camera body.
I can vouch for Kirk products! I love the custom L-Brackets and have used them on several bodies now and also I’ve had all my lenses fitted with the replacement lens feet and collars! I also use many other Kirk products as I find their quality is awesome and 100% reliable!
For me, there is no value in safety features on Arca-Swiss plates. I cultivated the habit of checking for positive engagement whenever I mount something in the clamp AND whenever I move a set-up. I haven't had anything fall out of a clamp. The only plates I have that came with with "safety" features are some long lens plates from RRS. I find them more of an annoyance than a help. I don't always want to slide forward into the clamp and I never want to open it wide enough to drop in from the top (one of my clamps will come apart), but those are the only choices with that style of "safety stop." Any additional step, or rule in the mounting procedure defeats a bit of the quick release feature for me. I do best with a single set of rules. I have standardized on a procedure that does not include mechanical safety features. The RRS stops are just single screws which are easily be removed. I have done just that.
All that aside, get a plate for that macro lens! You will never go back. The ability to do coarse framing with the ball head, then fine tune with the lens collar is not unique to the AS system, but it sure works well there. You also have a crude focus rail in the forward facing AS clamp.
Pete D.
I have Wimberly, Kirk, and Acratech plates. I would say that they all are about equal in build quality. Some plates have the double dovetail groove, which can make them more versatile for clamping on things like flash brackets. All other things being equal, I'd go with plates with that feature, which I believe originated with RRS.
Whichever you choose, I highly recommend the L-brackets.