Odd requirement!

[motorhead]

I have used an Arca-Swiss dovetail QR system on my cameras and support for some years and have been very happy with it. Now my wife has a little Panasonic FZ100 she will want to use my tripod at some stage.

She refuses to let me screw my spare Arca Swiss plate onto her camera as it blocks the battery compartment.

I am wondering if a converter of any sort is made that would slide into the tripod head and have a camera thread to allow the camera to be spun on? So Arca Swiss plate under a fixed camera thread. I could modify the spare plate using some araldite glue and thats still an option, but I thought a quick question here first might solve the problem.

I told you it was an odd requirement. She will also not countenance her own tripod and given how little she would want to use one I can understand her attitude.   

[neuroanatomist]

How about something like the Markins Universal Plate P20, designed specifically for attaching small P&S cameras?

[dr croubie]

so you've got a tripod, with a plate clamp, and you want to put a camera onto that, without screwing the plate onto the camera?

how would she feel about permanently attaching anything else to the camera that doesn't block the battery?

Or you can attach the lensplate to a small ballhead and carry it separately, screw the camera to the top of the ballhead, and clip it into the tripod when you want to use it?

[motorhead]

neuroanatomist,

Thats pretty much what my spare A-S plate looks like and it obstructs the battery compartment, which of course means it needs to be constantly on/off the camera and in my experience those threads will not last long doing that.

dr,

Removing my ballhead would be simple. However replacing it with another would not be a straightforward or quick operation due to "certain mods" I've made to the tripod, so I'm thinking about something simpler. Thats why I had considered glueing the camera attachment bolt into the A-S plate so it is rigid?

[dr croubie]

i probably didn't elaborate enough, my idea was to leave the tripod, ballhead, plate clamp attached together, then have a plate screwed to a new smaller ballhead, and screw that to the camera.

suppose it would make it a bit more bulky leaving it on permanently, and if you screw it together each time it's not much different to just screwing the plate onto the camera when you want it. it just sort of lifts the plate away from the camera so you can still open the battery door was the idea.
and which threads do you want to prevent getting damaged? the male on the plate or female in the camera?

[neuroanatomist]

As an alternative, how about her own tripod, but a different style?  I have a Gorillapod SLR-Zoom, which is small, light, and very handy, and still supports a gripped body with a decently heavy lens (although I haven't tried it with a white zoom, it works well for the 5DII + 24-105mm, for example).  That could be wrapped around any convenient support (including your full-sized tripod, I suppose...).

[motorhead]

neuroanatomist,

I like that idea. The Gorillapods are small and light enough for her to cope with and as you say, should wrap around the top of my tripod very easily.

Shes also taken with the idea of a simple bean bag. So either way I think we are sorted.

Many thanks to you both for the ideas.

 

[dr croubie]

actually, i was going to suggest a gorillapod too, it's actually the only tripod i've got atm. i figured i might get laughed at by the real pros for not having an arca-swiss on carbon fibre setup though so i didn't mention it...

i asked my mum to pick me up the small gorillapod cheap in hong kong for my P&S, she came with an SLR Zoom model. i ended up buying the small one myself, the good thing about it was that it comes with its own little lens plate (1*1.5cm or so).
the bad news is that (at least with the smallest model) the balls cracked a little too easily, maybe i was too forceful, maybe it was because it was 5 under and i was trying to manipulate it. long story short i ended up gluing some bits together, and accidentally glued the lensplate to the plateclamp.

now i've got my 7D, i've put a small ballhead on the SLR Zoom model, and it has no trouble supporting the weight of ungripped 7D and 70-300L (1.8kg or so combined), even just from the body, no tripod ring...

how big is the wife's camera? the small gorilla is really small, the slr zoom is huge. i think there's a model or two between them, check it out...

[motorhead]

Just a quick postscript to say that we have got a Gorillapod SLR and have added a small ballhead just to keep things simple. My wife loves it and is planning to keep it in her handbag, even though I have already suggested that it would easily go into my backpack. 

[neuroanatomist]

Glad that worked out for you!