Cheap QR adapters

[Tom Wills]

Hey everybody, just stumbled across this on B&H, and thought it might be useful to my homebuilding breathren. It's an exact copy of the Manfrotto sliding plate everybody raves about, and it has bubble levels on it to boot! Plus, it's under $30, instead of $42 for one of the Manfrotto plates. I know I'll be getting one of these for my new Vinten and one for my rig, so I can easily swap back and forth.

Well, looks like I'm an idiot. Forgot to include the link.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=Search&A=details&Q=&sku=318567&is=REG&addedTroughType=search

[Jay Truesdale]

I've got 2, one on my tripod and one one my hi hat.  They work about as good as the bogen ones, and from what I have tested, the dovetail is interchangable.  The bubble levels aren't practical, but look nice.   The bogens are better but at 25% less, I went w/ the giotos.

-j

[Tom Wills]

What's better with the Bogens? The bubble levels I'll probably end up cutting off, because they take up too much room, and I'll modify it to fit whatever specs I need, but for the most part, it's a pretty simple mechanism.

How's the weight capacity on them?

(Oh, and just to clairify, I'll just be popping these things on my Vinten and Steadi and DVC60, so I can just pop the camera off one, onto the other, balance, and shoot, without having to get out a screwdriver.)

[Jay Truesdale]

The bogens are better made.  Better coating (black, not grey), better machining.  The giotos are good enough for my budget range, and can handle the same weight as the equivelent bogens, I guess...  They do come with the smaller plate, and if you want the longer plate, It's like an extra $15.

[Tom Wills]

Yeah, for me, I'd go for one of the Manfrottos if I really had to, but the price on the Giottos seems so attractive. So, the one I bought will be a bit of a test. I'll mod it up, figure out what it needs, make it work well to my specs, and then, if it's good enough, buy a second and do to it what I did to the first. Shouldn't be too hard.

[Phil Kindred]

I have 2 Manfrotto/Bogen QR's--I wouldn't  trade them for gold.  You want quality--you pay for it.

[Tom Wills]

We'll see. If I'm not happy, at least it's only $28 I'm out. And, somehow, I'm practically positive I'll be able to make it work with a little bit of playing around.

[Phil Kindred]

My point was the Manfrotto's work out of the box.  No mods required.

[Tom Wills]

Very true. For most people, in that case, the Manfrotto may be the better option. I'll see how I like it when I get mine though before I pass any major judgements.

[Tom Wills]

Well, I got the Giottos plate this week, and I've been playing with it every day. The bubble levels are useless, but they're small and unobtrusive, so I felt no need to ruin that good powdercoating by removing them.

I'll go over a few little things here that I've noticed. The QR Plate that goes on the camera is quite nice, works with very standard screws, and includes the 3/8" and 1/4" screws. It also has that little spring-pin for keeping the camera from rotating, along with some rubber on the plate for that purpose. The base plate is very nice, appears to be quite well made, and is pretty basic. To attach it to your rig or tripod, it has 1/4x20 holes and 3/8x16 holes, and a hole for a spring-pin. Also, it includes a bolt which allows you to attach it to a 3/8" threaded hole or nut, instead of a bolt, which is very handy on a Steadicam dovetail, allowing you to use a simple jam nut instead of using a bolt. It has screw holes which hold spare camera screws very well, and has a nice big and rounded handle for the clamping mechanism. The handle's adjustable, so it can be perfected for the plate you're using. It also has a quite nice safety lock, which keeps the plate from sliding out accidentally. It's a quite nice syste, and I'll be definetly ordering another for my Vinten, as it's a lot easier to do the 1 minute (or less) changeover with those than to unscrew the camera from the one dovetail and screw it into the other.

Well, that's my review. No problems so far, and I'm just loving being able to swap about so quickly. I've got it down to the point where I can change from system to system faster than I could with the big old Sony snap plates I used to use.