Very well made, and light weight.

Needs an allen wrench to put on and off camera body, kinda gets in the way if on camera and using hand held. Once on tripod is it rock solid. A little on the pricey side.

I purchased this Kirk Enterprises L-Bracket to use with my Nikon F5. I take quite a few outdoor photo's using a tripod and this bracket is prefect for vertical shots. It is very well built and machined, and light weight. If you do alot of shooting with your camera on a Tripod, then this bracket is a must have.

Customer Service

Not needed.

Similar Products Used:

None like this.

* Light weight. * Well machined. * Allows access to all camera parts/ports/batteries without removing. * Same quality you'd expect from Kirk if you bought from them before. * Base is perfectly centered for horizontal and vertical positions. * Price is comparable with the competition. * Ships with allen/hex wrench. * Resale value on these plates is very high.

* Fit could be tighter. * Plate puts pressure on the remote release cable which adds stress at the contacts. * These plates get expensive very quickly.

This is an expensive little unit at nearly $140 new. I don't imagine you'll be able to find many used ones for much less either. The *only* negative side of using the Arca Swiss system is cost. A good quality ball head costs as much $300 to $400 and you'll have to assume a few hundred dollars worth of plates if you're a photographer that consistently uses different gear. Frankly, if you're using Arca Swiss and you're not using custom fit plates then you're probably wasting some of your money because you're losing one of the biggest advantages.....Fit. I own multiple plates from Kirk and RRS. Until now I've never noticed anything that separated one from the other. I've never used the RRS version of this plate so I don't know how it compares. I do know that I'm not entirely happy with the fit of the Kirk plate. Usually, when installing custom plates there is little if any room for it to turn or twist even when not screwed in tightly. With this plate, I actually have to make sure that it's screwed in tightly otherwise it'll shift a tiny, but noticeable amount. The other custom fit Kirk and RRS plates I own don't do this. There is one additional fit issue that relates to the support of having the release cable attached to the camera. As it turns out, I have to keep the plate aligned all the way to one side in order to ensure that I really do have enough room for the cable to plug in without any pressure being put on it. It seems like an extra 2 or 3mm would have eliminated this issue. I can tell it's not quite right because of the circular hole machined to allow access to the battery. If I position the plate so that it aligns perfectly with the battery cover then the remote release cable has considerable stress placed on it. It I realign the plate so that there's no more pressure on the cable then the hole doesn't match up with the battery hole. It's not that big of a deal because I've never needed to get to the battery compartment and I always carry tools to remove the plate. Needless to say, I was a little dissapointed with fit. I'd like to try the Really Right Stuff version and compare the two. I'm expecting RRS to stand out this time with fit. I sometimes wonder if Kirk put this product out a little too soon before getting the fit better. It's very light weight, has smooth cuts, and smooth transitions everywhere. I was impressed with the quality of workmanship although it's nothing more that they've delivered in the past. One of the things I like about Kirk plates is that they seem to always ship you an extra hex wrench with it. As small as it may seem, I appreciate the extra effort and like the ability to have them pretty much everywhere if I need them. I haven't had to actually buy a wrench yet. Without a doubt, the absolute BEST QUALITY of this plate is the alignment of the base when in vertical mode. Kirk was smart enough to create the plate so that the lens mount is exactly centered with the center of the vertical plate. The value may not be apparent unless you've used L-plates before but it simply means that keeping the composition identical between vertical and horizontal modes is MUCH better supported. Interestingly, the RRS version of this plate seems to be very far from the center of the lens, perhaps as much as 3/4 to 1 inch. Unless you have a wide base on your tripod head I can only imagine that it'll be sticking out of the edge a little if you try and keep the composition the same. It should be easy enough for you to search RRS and find the photographs of the plate that I looked at. Draw your own conclusions.

Customer Service

Never used it.

Similar Products Used:

Lots of RRS and Kirk plates for EOS-3, Rebel G, generic plates, Canon G3, Contax G2, on and on...