Chaitanya said:
Talys said:
Chaitanya said:
3: There are couple of good tripod/monopod heads from Manfrotto and other manufacturers that provide compatibility with Arca swiss style QR plates. Biggest benefit of these heads that it comes with a arca swiss plate which I can use it with flash bracket(Kirk) and macro rails(kirk) without having to spend another 200-300$ on plates for my camera and lenses.
GAH. Let's not go there on Manfrotto Arca heads. I have, I think, the only Xpro arca compatable ballhead. It's one of the best ballheads ever! Except it's the most incompatible ballhead ever-- 75% of the arca plates that I own don't work, because the dovetail angle is a little different. And you MUST topload, because the base has a safety pin, the prevents you from putting a safety stop on the front and sliding it out the back.
I finally got pissed off with it, took the super-expensive Manfrotto plate off the top, and plunked on a cheap Chinese one so that I could actually use the plates I want.
BTW, if they are going to have the lens out this year, they should just say, "we're going to release it November 15". Really, any later, and they're going to miss the Christmas rush, because retailers need to place in their orders by about then. And, in North America, Black Friday is a huge part of the Christmas shopping.
Thanks for letting me know about the interoperability headaches of Manfrotto heads, guess I will just get a Kirk ball head (which means spending quite a bit for lens plates and body plate). In general it seems like arca swiss is more a guideline rather than a standard when it comes to Quick release systems.
Arca-swiss plates all have dovetails on opposing sides of the plate, and the ability to put optional safety screws on either or both ends that can prevent your camera from sliding off accidentally.
Most people who use arca plates don't put safety screws on both ends on most setups, because they like giving a half-twist, and just letting the camera side out -- usually back towards them. If you put screws on both ends, you have to turn that knob forever before you can remove it from the top.
But a lot of people (me included) prefer top-loading, drop-in systems. There isn't an efficiency reason to this; it's just a preference. So Manfrotto made theirs top-loading by making one of the dovetail sides retractable. You can either twist the knob to tighten/retract it, or press a button to retract it. When you let go, the dovetail springs back into place, and then you can drop the camera in.
Sounds great, right?
Well, two things. First, for whatever reason, the angles are very slightly sharper than most arca plates. That means that a lot of plates will work, but some won't. It sucks if the plate you want to use, doesn't.
Second, the Manfrotto plate doesn't use the safety stops on the ends system, theoretically, because it's a top loading system, and they can make the plate a little smaller that way. But it's still not good for your camera to fall off the tripod, so instead, they have a built-in safety pin, built in to the head. It sticks out, and catches the safety plate if it's sliding forwards or back.
Sounds lovely, except, now, you can't remove it by sliding the camera back towards you anymore. On a light lens, who cares; you can just use the release latch, and lift the camera up. But on a heavy lens, it's just easier to slide it back towards you than to lift it up.
Now, of course, you can say, why would anyone want to use a heavy lens on a ballhead... but it happens, for whatever reason, and it's definitely inelegant in that situation.
But fortunately, it has a nut in the middle, so you can replace the top plate with a more standard one. The XPRO ball itself is excellent; it's much smoother than most, because it's much larger (and heavier), and it has additional friction controls. Still, if you're going to do this easy modification, don't bother with the Arca version, because the regular version of the same head is cheaper or is bundled for cheaper.
