I have Induro ball heads and plates for all my gear, and do not mind going that route again. The only thing stopping me is I would love to have a clamp that can rotate to take collared lenses as well. Does anyone know of such a clamp within $100 that is compatible with Induro Arca Swiss plates?
all my clamps can take collared lenses like my 70-200 and 300 as long as you have the appropriate plates. you don't need anything special other then a basic clamp to do so. the one shown is primarily for use with panorama situations.
Can you explain that point please? My regular clamp, when tightened onto a screw thread, is fixed in one orientation. I can, theoretically, rotate my lens plate by 90 degrees but I would rather not do that and lose out on the ability to shift lenses a bit (in a general case, not my particular macro rail case). Hence the reason I was looking for a rotating clamp.
I would love to know what you do to overcome this with a regular clamp.
what type of head are you using so i can reference?
a ballhead or pan and tilt type?
my travel gig . essentially the same as my larger tripods scaled down for compactness.
my ballhead base rotates 360 on my tripod horizontally and locks at any point
the ball in the ballhead has the same 360 rotational capability along with 180 arc hemisphereical movement and locks at any point.
the lens mount being attached to the lens is a vertical ring based attachment. loosen the the lock on it and the lens will rotate in the mount 360 allowing both landscape and portrait and lots more. this capability can be enhanced by the type of tripod itself too
i also use what is referred to as an L bracket on my camera body when using lenses that do not have a built in mount. this allows shifting from either LS to P modes with minimal to no reframing needed.
in doing macro i use a medium ballhead for the flexibility with the rail along with a Gitzo 2540 explorer tripod which allows an almost infinite setup capability. my rail setup is based on the AS clamp system so it clamps on to the ballhead instead of screwing. it allows for somewhat flexiblity or the racking.
on a monopod the rotating capability of the clamp is irrelevent for obvious reasons
Ya, I considered directly mounting the camera to the rail. I was not sure how much I would like that, and went with a QR system. I guess I will find out if it was worth the money.
Somehow I know you had a RRS/Novoflex/Hejnar full setup
I am just starting into macro and $475 was not something I was willing to spend at the moment. My total costs for the rail + clamp + qr plate was ~$200.
