Originally posted by Theov39 Is being able to open the battery compartments while the L bracket is connected so critical? The battery last 100s of shots. It's no big deal to remove the L bracket now and then to change batteries. It takes all of 30 seconds.
Agreed, in reality it's not an issue, unless the thingy screw at the bottom is awkward to loosen. I use a generic L Plate and it comes with a screw with one of those 'D Ring' bits attached (actually pictured above) and it makes for loosening and tightening really easy, so yeh just loosen slightly, pan the L plate out of the way and swap, the Plate doesn't even leave the camera.
Originally posted by mtngal While I like the looks of that one, and it seems to have a removable lip, I'm not sure it would work particularly well on the KP. I much prefer my tripod plates to have lips, or at least not rotate at all - I'd rather hand-hold a camera when shooting macros than get everything lined up in the viewfinder, only to have the camera shift the minute you let go. That leaves out the Sony 6300 L-bracket as the lip is on the front of the bracket (I looked at a different manufacturer's L-Bracket but the one linked to above is the same) so it would have to be removed completely.
Being able to access the battery is less critical on the KP than it was on the K-S1 where the card was in the same compartment, but it would still be nice - can't tell you how often I've been hiking and had to change batteries. The last thing I'd want to do is have to dig out the wrench as well as the new battery, I'd probably drop the wrench and lose it in pine needles or something. But I'd be willing to trade battery access for a properly fitting plate or L-bracket.
I started a different thread about trying to find a simple plate for the KP - I now have 2 different ones and both interfere with the folding screen on the back. If I can find a regular plate, I have a generic L-Bracket with an Arca-Swiss quick release for a camera to mount on. It's big, bulky and with the pull out knob awkward to carry/leave on the camera. But it works great IF you have a proper plate on the camera (used it on the K-S1).
A stupid idea, but if I can't find anything, what about if I were to buy a generic plate without a lip and stick velcro on the camera and plate? That would introduce all the complication of adhesive and probably not solve the problem, I suspect.
I'd love to know if anyone finds a solution anywhere. None of the manufacturers will make one unless there's enough demand for something - they do need to make enough on sales to cover their design and manufacturing costs.
I've come full circle with this and decided the following;
I spend
way more time handheld shooting than tripod shots, even less shots on the tripod in portrait style than landscape orientation. I don't think it makes a whole lot of sense to keep an L Plate on the camera body for something that in reality accounts for 5-10% of your shots. You ruin the comfort of holding the camera (as it was intended) with an L Plate on, it gets in the way of compartments and it adds unnecessary size and bulk (it actually makes stowing away in some of my bags compartments just that extra bit annoying to the degree the fastener or zip is really straining.
So my L Plate now sits in the bag and comes out when I need it.
What I have discovered (and am working slowly towards myself) is that some genius folk are 'reverse' engineering this issue by having the L Plate (an extra large one, it's more like a ∟shape (both sides equal in length) than the traditional ⌐ shape (one side shorter) permanently anchored to the
tripod and instead attaching a (low profile) 'clamp' to the camera body, thereby allowing the user to position the camera in a portrait or landscape mode at any time with a far less bigger bracket footprint.
To me this makes perfect sense, but it's all about cost and parts. I think those larger L brackets can cost a bit (I think they're manufactured with the idea of mounting cameras with battery grips) and also finding a low profile clamp that's gonna fit easily on the camera body, prolly a lever clamp will work better (and they're often not cheap). There's also some messing around with the ball point on the tripods, pulling the clamp off and putting the L Bracket on in place etc. But yeh I like this idea more.