RRS L-Plate for A900 pics

RSS did what they could on the A700, I can't blame them for very much on it.

matthiaspaul wrote: Since the bracket will remain semi-permanentely attached

For some people. Some of us only mount it when needed. However...

matthiaspaul wrote: it should provide options to mount handstraps:

It already does.

matthiaspaul wrote: It should either "replace" the mounting plate of the STP-GB1AM, so that this handstrap itself can be attached to the L-plate

That's the way that it was designed.

matthiaspaul wrote: or the L-plate's bottom plate should be extended to the right and provide a strap eyelet right below the finger grip, so that the Minolta handstrap HS-1 or other 3rd party handstraps can be mounted there. Of course the battery opening must remain uncovered.

Of course... that would be a largely impossible thing to do, without making the plate too large and complicated. Way too many people would complain about the design if that happened.

matthiaspaul wrote: Does the L-plate's bottom plate already feature a pin going into that little groove in the DSLR-A900s bottom? That would add some extra stability...

I have my A900 here. There are no grooves on the bottom. There is a small, circular indentation. I assume that is what you are talking about. No, there isn't a pin on the plate, but it is not necessary. Like the rest of their plates, it follows the contour of the camera in front and back. The design is inherently anti-twist and very stable.

matthiaspaul wrote: Maybe they could somehow add a spirit level to the top of the left arm of the L-plate?

They put spirit levels (optionally) in the clamps on the ballhead, where it works with the camera horizontal or vertical.

By the way, I have one sitting here as I type this. It came in the box when they returned my camera today. I am seriously disappointed with one aspect of the design. I specifically loaned both my remote shutter release and the USB cable that came with the A900 to RRS so they could accommodate both connections in their design so that people who shoot tethered, as I do sometimes, could use the camera mounted vertically. They left a notch in the plate to allow sufficient clearance for the door over the USB & HDMI ports to be opened & closed with the plate mounted, but the strain relief portion of the USB cable extends too far and does not clear the plate. It is impossible to mount the camera vertically* on the ballhead clamp with the USB cable attached. I find this particularly frustrating because this was one of the primary reasons why I went to the trouble of loaning my camera to them. The A700 plate has the same deficiency, which I complained about at the time, because the person who loaned them their A700 didn't include the USB cable so that they could design the plate to accommodate it.

* It's not completely impossible. It can be done with a Kirk LBA-1 spacer block, which I already have to use with the A700 L-plate.

Kirk LBA-1
Also available directly from Kirk Enterprises

Edited by RobArtLyn - 20 January 2009 at 02:27

You could drill a small hole in the remote door. Place a cord through it, leaving say, 1/2" w/ a knot on the end stick through to pull, and glue in place from the back side of it (hot glue comes to mind). Extreme, I know, but if you leave the bracket on all the time, it would work and be quite easy to do.

I guess I'm just use to using the 7D where I had to have it clamped off to the side when the release was in there.

It's a balance, I could use it like that, and it meant the bracket wasn't overly big.

RobArtLyn wrote: matthiaspaul wrote: Since the bracket will remain semi-permanentely attached For some people. Some of us only mount it when needed. However...

Well, I was assuming the L-plate's mounting screw does not feature some kind of knob, so that a hex key or such is required to fasten it?

RobArtLyn wrote: matthiaspaul wrote: It should either "replace" the mounting plate of the STP-GB1AM, so that this handstrap itself can be attached to the L-plate That's the way that it was designed.

That's great news for me (I'm not familiar with RRS items) and I can now see it on one of the photos. (I wished, however, a similar provision would also exist on the left side of the plate just to have more mounting options.)

matthiaspaul wrote: Does the L-plate's bottom plate already feature a pin going into that little groove in the DSLR-A900s bottom? That would add some extra stability... I have my A900 here. There are no grooves on the bottom. There is a small, circular indentation. I assume that is what you are talking about.

Yes, exactly.

No, there isn't a pin on the plate, but it is not necessary. Like the rest of their plates, it follows the contour of the camera in front and back. The design is inherently anti-twist and very stable.

But couldn't it be slightly "off-mounted" by, say, a millimeter, whereas a "centering" or "registering" pin could avoid that completely? After all, that's what this indentation is for to the best of my knowledge...

matthiaspaul wrote: Maybe they could somehow add a spirit level to the top of the left arm of the L-plate? They put spirit levels (optionally) in the clamps on the ballhead, where it works with the camera horizontal or vertical.

I see.

They left a notch in the plate to allow sufficient clearance for the door over the USB & HDMI ports to be opened & closed with the plate mounted, but the strain relief portion of the USB cable extends too far and does not clear the plate.

Did you talk back to them already?

In either case, thanks for your efforts and your helpful report.

Greetings,

Matthias

revdocjim wrote: I just looked at it on the RRS website. Not much room to grind... A really slick solution would be to create a tiny tool shaped like a small minus screwdriver to use when opening flaps. Then create a tiny hole in the bracket where it is stored, like how pointer devices fit into a Palm.

Nice idea! Maybe the hex key (that supposedly comes with the L-plate?) could be used for this purpose and stored right inside the L-plate itself somehow (perhaps following the "L" shape), so you don't have to search for it, when you need it.

RobArtLyn wrote: matthiaspaul wrote: Does the L-plate's bottom plate already feature a pin going into that little groove in the DSLR-A900s bottom? That would add some extra stability... No, there isn't a pin on the plate, but it is not necessary. Like the rest of their plates, it follows the contour of the camera in front and back. The design is inherently anti-twist and very stable.

Still, I would prefer to have such a pin for perfect parallel alignment of the camera with the base plate and to maintain maximum stability with heavier lenses in vertical position. Somewhere up in this thread you wrote, that you would have come into the habit of loosening the screw in order to slightly move the L-plate and open the flaps on the left side (of the A700). From this I deduct, that alignment may not always be 100% perfect with heavy lenses or if the screw becomes slightly loose.

RobArtLyn wrote: I am seriously disappointed with one aspect of the design. I specifically loaned both my remote shutter release and the USB cable that came with the A900 to RRS so they could accommodate both connections in their design so that people who shoot tethered, as I do sometimes, could use the camera mounted vertically. They left a notch in the plate to allow sufficient clearance for the door over the USB & HDMI ports to be opened & closed with the plate mounted, but the strain relief portion of the USB cable extends too far and does not clear the plate. It is impossible to mount the camera vertically* on the ballhead clamp with the USB cable attached. I find this particularly frustrating because this was one of the primary reasons why I went to the trouble of loaning my camera to them.

I see the problem. Hm, maybe, as an attempt to remedy the problem (if it cannot be solved by RRS in the first place by trying to further improve the design), you could try to find a 3rd party USB 2.0 Hi-Speed cable featuring an angled plug - does Sony use a proprietary USB connector or do they use a standard mini (or micro?) USB connector?

Yet one more question in regard to RRS' "BA900-L": The Kirk plates seem to come with a standard tripod mounting hole on the bottom side of the plate, is this the case with the RRS BA900-L plate as well? I know, it may sound a bit odd to request this given that the main purpose of the L-plate is to attach the camera to an Arca-Swiss compatible head, but for those, who would keep the L-plate permanently attached, the availability of a "standard" tripod hole may be very useful for other mounting purposes in the field.

Greetings,

Matthias

Thanks for your explanation, Robert.

RobArtLyn wrote: matthiaspaul wrote: Hm, maybe, as an attempt to remedy the problem (if it cannot be solved by RRS in the first place by trying to further improve the design), you could try to find a 3rd party USB 2.0 Hi-Speed cable featuring an angled plug - does Sony use a proprietary USB connector or do they use a standard mini (or micro?) USB connector? It uses a standard, but rare outside the camera world, micro USB plug. I have never seen a right angle version of such a connector.

I have not, either, but somewhere they ought to exist. ;-)

In either case, from close inspection of a macro shot of the DSLR-A900's left side, it seems, the USB connector used by Sony is actually an 8 pin connector. It looks a bit like a micro-B USB connector, but the standard micro-B USB connector has 5 pins only. Since it is not even labelled "USB" on the flap, I guess, it's (once more) a Sony proprietary connector combining USB 2.0 Hi-Speed and Composite Video in one... #-|

EDIT: The Konica Minolta 7D, 5D / Sweet D, Sony DSLR-A100, DSLR-A200, DSLR-A300, DSLR-A350, DSLR-A700 and DSLR-A900 all use the same proprietary combo connector. So, actually, it is Konica Minolta who is to blame for introducing non-standard connectors. However, the micro USB standard did not exist in 2004 when the 7D was introduced, but Sony should have adopted the standard, when it became available, at least they should in the future. FWIW, the pinout of the connector is as follows:

http://www.mi-fo.de/forum/index.php?showtopic=22787
/---+
| 1 | GND (Wired to #6 in camera)
| 2 | (Out) Composite Video (CVBS/FBAS)
| 3 | (Out) Audio (Reserved / Not currently used)
| 4 | (In) AV Cable Detect (Wired to #1 in cable)
| 5 | (In/Out) USB 2.0 Data+ (Full-Speed or Hi-Speed depending on camera)
| 6 | GND (Wired to #1 in camera)
| 7 | (In/Out) USB 2.0 Data- (Full-Speed or Hi-Speed depending on camera)
| 8 | (In) USB Cable & Host Detect (Wired to +5.0V VUSB Host Power in cable)
\---+ Cable Shield

So, it seems, RRS has the job to really do their stuff right in the first place... Did you hear back from them already?

Yes. The bottom of the plate is tapped with a standard 1/4x20 threaded mounting point.

Great, thanks.

Greetings,

Matthias

Edited by matthiaspaul - 04 February 2009 at 12:23