I like to work fast and one of the things that slows me down is using a tripod.
The tripod I currently own is a good size, fairly lightweight and sturdy but I still find that there are too many options for quick operation. To get a shot from landscape mode to portrait mode requires a lot of fiddling around.
Then I came across an instructional video in which the presenter was using an L bracket.
What an L bracket gives you is an additional tripod (or monopod) mounting point on the side of your camera. So instead of flipping the camera attached to the head of your tripod (or monopod), you simply switch to the other mounting point.
The benefit of this is that the position of the lens you are using stays in the same place, meaning that you don’t have to do more adjustments with the legs or height of the tripod (or monopod) to obtain the view you had in the other orientation.
With this bit of kit I am starting to feel that I’m taking the L plate off the project.
I’m still on the look out for a better tripod and there are plenty of rave reviews of 3LT. But a tripod is one of those items which I like to see and feel before buying it. Finding a physical shop that stocks these is a problem now that Jacobs and Jessops are no more.
I have said it before but I’ll say it again, if you don’t buy from the high street and it is no longer there you can only blame yourself. Which is why I try to get as much kit as I can from one of the London Camera Exchange stores.