I am thinking about purchasing an L Bracket for my Canon 6dmkii. How often do any of you use one? My ball head is a Manfrotto with the RC2 quick release. Does anyone have any recommendations?
Thank you for your input and Happy New Year.
Brian
I’ve used an L bracket on my Canon 5D iterations for many years. IMO it’s one of the best investments you can make for landscape photography. It allows for rapid switching between vertical and horizontal, and with a good degree of stability. It allows you to evenly balance the cameras weight without having to flip the camera over on the ball head, which can be very cumbersome. I’ve used both Kirk and Really Right Stuff variations over the years, and both get the job done well. They are not cheap, and they attach to the camera in ways that are customized to the configuration of specific bodies. Of course this means when you get a different body you need a new L bracket.
I currently use the Kirk BH3 ballhead with its Arca Swiss style release. You mention that you have the RC2 quick release, which I think has the flip lock, which can be prone to accidental release if it snags on something. The Kirk or RRS ballheads use a different, more stable mechanism where you twist a knob to tighten the arca swiss part of the ballhead to the L plate. It’s virtually impossible for them to accidentally release the plate. Again they are not cheap. But if you do a lot of landscape photography an L bracket and a good ballhead save you a lot of aggravation and effort over the years.
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Hey @Brian_Murphy.
I also have a 6Dii and my l-bracket never leaves the camera. As @Ed_McGuirk said is one of the best investment you can make.
I have a cheap one from ebay, dedicated model to the 6Dii and it works great (it was around 20€). The only thing I don’t like is that the screen can’t tilt all the way in the direction of the hinge. But not a big problem for me.
3legged thing also have a good one but pricier.
As for the ballhead, I have a 3LT one and it’s a great and light one, but for me is not ideal, it moves a little when tightening. As soon as possible I’ll upgrade to a geared one, may be heavily but the fine adjustment they allow are great. Used to use them on studio and IMO are the best heads if you don’t need to change framing too fast.
Thank you. I have a Manfrotto ball head that I like and may just get a conversion kit to make my quick release an Arca Swiss so an L bracket can be used. I appreciate your help.
Thank you Ed. I may just consider the conversion kit for about$35.00. I like my Manfrotto ball head and now that I am retired the budget is limited. I appreciate your help.
I’ve been using an L bracket for about 3 years and absoutely recommend it. When things are cumbersome you tend to avoid it. I started to look for more verticals than before. Verticals now are as enjoyable as horizontals. One thing that was really annoying before is that your vertical composition would change after all the knobs were tightened. Thats because it was tightened sideways by friction to a vertical plate. No amount of force could keep it from a downward drift due to the camera’s weight. So you never ended up with the composition you wanted. You would guess about the drift and try to compensate but that’s bs. With the bracket the camera sits on top of the plate so friction plays no role between plate and camera.
But there is still the issue of friction on the ballhead itself. The best way to handle it is to get a large ball. The bigger the ball the better the grip because of the larger surface area that’s gripped. That’s been my experience.
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Thank you for the advice. I have a Manfrotto 468MGRC2 ball head that I like. I will look into getting the adapter plate to convert to Arca Swiss.
Yeah, if budget is an issue, the most important thing is to convert to arca swiss, its much safer and more stable. Once you use an L bracket, you’ll wonder why you didn’t get one much sooner.
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One thing to be aware of: I used a Kirk L bracket on my old Canon 5D II and on my 5DIV I use the Really Right Stuff bracket. The only time I take it off the camera is when I go out shooting hand held macros with my 100mm macro lens (to lighten the load). The RRS bracket is in two pieces, and taking it on and off is a bit cumbersome. RRS says it makes it more stable, but I prefer the simplicity of a single piece bracket.
Thank you Ed. Skill set and budget both play a factor. Be safe, Brian
Thank you Tony. Good point on being cumbersome. I can see me taking off the bracket and not using it due to inconvenience.
All my bodies have had RRS L-brackets for years. They never come off – not that heavy. But there has been a nice feature for quite a while that lets you extend the side plate out from the camera body, and I find it makes a very good grip, similar to the old Pentax 67 with the wooden handle on the side. The hex key is magnetically captive so its always right there if you want to change the configuration.
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I never remove my brackets either, the amount of weight they add is negligible. Attach and forget.
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I’ve had RRS L Brackets on all of my Canon and Olympus bodies for years. Perfect fit. I never take them off. Sometimes I’ll loosen the L bracket side to slide it out to make it a bit easier to attach a USB cable for a firmware update. Weight… negligible. Would never bother taking them off.
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I don’t have a battery grip for my camera. Do the L brackets work without the grip? I have read pros and cons on it.
If you are looking at Kirk or RRS, I believe they have custom designs that are tailored to either with or without the grip. But one L bracket won’t work on both.
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Thanks Ed. I have not picked out a particular brand yet. But I will have to change my Manfrotto ball head to Arca Swiss or buy a new ball head as well.
Another vote for an Arca Swiss L-Bracket. I never take mine off either. And I’d add Hejnar branded material to the discussion. I can personally vouch for a lens foot he made for my 500 f/4. To my understanding, he is an independent guy in the Midwest who makes everything himself. I am not positive he makes L-Brackets, but you can definitely ask. If so, it’d probably be less than half the cost of an RRS or Kirk bracket and just as good a quality.
Thank you Lyle, I appreciate your help.
I have L-brackets on my Canons, they’re inexpensive generic aluminum brackets that are universal fit on virtually any camera – with Arca-Swiss dovetails on both legs of the L. I really like them and wouldn’t want to do without, they’re really good with the ball-head on my tripod and the Manfroto tilt-head on my monopod. For my Lumix GX85 I have a Arca-Swiss plate that incorporates a hand grip, but isn’t an L-bracket and I really miss the other leg of the L for vertical photos.
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