I am not one for buying new camera accessories most of the camera stuff I have I have owned since Moses was a boy. @realspeed showed us a new camera mount that he had but it was too large to my way of thinking.
While browsing I happened to come across an F38 mount on Amazon which seems to be some sort of a standard but which looked small yet was claimed to hold up to 9kg. I think if I had a camera that was 9Kg I would give the hobby away.
The first thing I saw, and how I came across it, was as a camera mount for a backpack. Anyway further investigation I came across a tripod 1/4 or 3/8 mount so I bought one, it was only $25 on special though the price varies enormously, I saw some for $107.
As an addendum, I checked the Amazon price it has gone back to $39.99 so I was lucky to buy two at the promotion price (equal to approx £12 instead of £20)
Bruce
I did think about getting one of those quick release mounts before I went for the
swiss arca plate type instead. the reason being I have some movement on the tripod head to adjust the balance.
I recently bought a new tripod with an Arca mount because the F38 type fit it. It is a bit clumsy in my opinion but I don’t use a tripod much and this one packed smaller than my old one.
The main advantage is that I don’t have to remove the F38 mount. You can buy a tripod with the F38 mount but it cost twice as much as this one which was $100 (£50)
I use a manfrotto befreelive tripod ideal for video work which has tha arca swiss head. Collapses right down when inversed, as well also comes with a ball head which makes levelling up easier
on the handle i have a bluetooth dongle in the audio out port to go to bluetooth headphones so I am not tethered to the rig . Also a rocker start/stop/zoop rocker switch to the remote port to control; the camcorder… The stop dymo tape marks the balance on the slide plate.
Bruce from what i gather that F38 plate will not all balance adjustement.
this kind can be of different lengths, the one on my camcorder is nearly 5" long
It has limited movement if that is what you mean but I can’t see that as much of a disadvantage, I have just the camcorder and two compact cameras, it is not like they need balancing. Actually the camcorder stands steady on the F38 base so it can’t be far out of balance, opening the screen would have a bigger effect I would have thought.
The main thing thing is that I don’t have all the paraphernalia that you carry about, my biggest accessory apart from the tripod, which I will probably keep in the car, is a small, battery powered, LED video light. The latter is rarely used either.
Not particularly light but OK, has a soft bag. Not the best tripod in the world but good enough for my use and the price was reasonable. The motion in all directions is very smooth with just the right amount of resistance, unlike my last tripod.
when I go out to video something. those I put up on youtube is a fraction of ones I don’t show. Of course trying to video wild Kangaroos in the UK is impossible
I’m not criticising, I am just saying that it is a lot to carry, I generally just carry the camcorder by itself perhaps on 12mm webbing round my neck. It used to be on a U link that screwed into the tripod mount but now I have replaced that with a F38 belt mount.
Whether I will use this strap much is a moot point because the camcorder is easy enough to carry with my hand in its strap but I thought this might occasionally come in handy.
It could be used for any of my cameras but generally I just hold them.
