I’m responding in a new thread, as I want to include pictures and thus might risk hijacking madmacro’s interesting thread on his nifty new setup.stevekale wrote:Does anyone know if an arca style clamp such as the Really Right Stuff B2-Pro 60mm can sit flat on a baseboard or does the screw knob require some clearance (just like madmacro)?
If someone knows the answer to this I would appreciate it.
I understand from AndrewC that the lever clamps can operate sitting flush with a base board but what about the screw knob versions?
Steve, I don’t know if there are screw-type clamps that can sit flush. My 4-inch long Kirk clamps can not. But I wonder if your search for a clamp with a knob small enough to mount flush is really the best possible direction?
Below are two pictures of my rig, the Bratcam, in various iterations. Note the use of metal plates “B” and “E” to—among other things—create clearance between the clamp knobs and focus block. (The lower of the two Kirk clamps is mounted upside down, to permit it to move along an Arca-Swiss style rail.
Image is from an earlier post.
Similarly, in the picture below, metal plates labeled “F” and “D” provide similar function:
Image is from another earlier post.
These plates do not meaningfully reduce the stability of the rig—mine handles 100x just fine. My plates were made by a professional fabricator, but yours needn’t be. Mine do more than just create clearance—they permit alignment adjustment, and provide for the particular needs of adapting the existing surfaces and holes of the focus blocks to the Arca-Swiss standard. Yours could be a simple spacer—basically a big, rectangular, home-made washer. You would make with aluminum stock from the hardware store, a hacksaw, and a drill.
The benefit of this approach is that you could use clamps with large enough knobs to be easy to turn with bare hands, and provide enough clearance to move your fingers around them. I’ve found that having such knobs really close to obstructions makes them frustrating to work with. Providing additional “finger room” around adjustment knobs was something I changed between iterations of the Bratcam.
If you really want to flush mount a screw-type clamp, you could potentially get a clamp that doesn’t clear, and file down the knob until it does. But would you find it convenient to work with such a small knob? I suspect not.
As for lever clamps, they definitely have their place—I have one on my “go-to” tripod and use it all the time; I trust it and appreciate the convenience, as remove and reattach the camera countless times in a typical shoot. But I’ve avoided them in the Bratcam for several reasons. The first is that lever clamps can be a bit picky about the tolerances of various A-S plates, and I want to be able to mix and match any old A-S plate I happen to have on hand (a bunch, of varied manufacturers and ages). Second, during setup of an image, I often use my clamps in an almost-closed position, with just enough looseness to slide an A-S rail, and then tighten everything down for shooting. I find this easier to do with my screw clamps than my lever clamp. Third, I prefer long clamps such as the Kirk 4-inch. Perhaps these are now available in lever-release types, but they were not at the time I chose the Kirks. Not that 4 inch clamps are necessary—they are almost surely overkill for most folks; but I like them.
Cheers,
--Chris
