I thought someone may be interested in the little milling work I did in order to outfit my 20D with a hand strap. It was quite scary taking a milling machine to my RRS L plate but the results are really worth it.. I much prefer having the camera to hand and having a belt pack to put it in when not using. The safety pin is pretty secure but I think I can do better :-D
RRS has started to put right hand hand strap lugs on their L plates, starting with their latest, the Nikon 200D. http://www.reallyrightstuff.com/body_plates/nikon/index.html
They said when they make a new batch of the 5D without grip they will also include that feature. The other thing they have just started doing is putting a centering mark on both the landscape and portrait portion of their L brackets to aid in centering on the nodal rail for panos. This pic of the BD 5L does not have the strap lug on it yet but does have the centering marks. http://www.reallyrightstuff.com/body_plates/canon/index.html
Mike K
ooh I'm not charging for it!! It was scary enough doing my own.. I think any tool shop would do the change for a reasonable price. If any body wants to know the measurements I can post them.
Hi Tim,
I modified my plate the same way but I just looped the strap thru and around the plate. Since the plate is anchored in two places I didn't feel there would be any excessive torquing, nor does the strap does not hamper the use of my Acratech head.
I am curious why you use a safety pin. When I had mine modified, I just wen into a machine shop and the owner just took a couple of minutes to mill w/o charge. Like you said, it is a scary thought to alter, but it is the only way to use a hand strap with this L plate.
jwc127 wrote:
Hi Tim,
I modified my plate the same way but I just looped the strap thru and around the plate. Since the plate is anchored in two places I didn't feel there would be any excessive torquing, nor does the strap does not hamper the use of my Acratech head.
I am curious why you use a safety pin. When I had mine modified, I just wen into a machine shop and the owner just took a couple of minutes to mill w/o charge. Like you said, it is a scary thought to alter, but it is the only way to use a hand strap with this L plate.
Didn't this cause a problem when clamping the plate? Or did you mill a slot on both top and bottom to allow the strap to return? If you check the picture, I had to have something on the other side of my slot to act as the 'pin' for the strap to go around.. I was looking for a stainless steel pin that I could insert through the whole lot but haven't had time yet. Any chance of uploading a picture or diagram of how you did yours? (does it work because the acratech has a scoop in the side of the head clamp? the rrs clamp is actually covex rather than concave at this point?)
I am also planning on giving this a try, since I want the L-bracket but love my camadapter strap. I was thinking it might be possible to mill through a bit lower on the bracket so it creates a hole to loop the handstrap around, however, this would probably cause problems mounting it horizontally. I like your idea with the saftey pin, I think I can picture how its working now, just need something much sturdier for my clumsy hands
