Episode 350: Why I Recommend an “L” Bracket or Hand Grip

Show Transcript

Greetings, you’re listening to the Liam Photography Podcast, I’m your host Liam Douglas and this is Episode 350 for Thursday June 15th, 2023. Today I want to talk about why I recommend an “L” bracket or possibly a hand grip for your camera, but first I wanted to let my listeners know I have updated my 10K Subscriber contest over on my Youtube Channel. I changed out the prize to the Viltrox AF75mm F/1.2 PRO lens for the Fujifilm X Mount. This is a superb portrait lens that is made of high quality materials and makes amazing images. I highly recommend having this lens in your bag to capture truly wonderful portraits and at $550, you cannot go wrong considering any F/1.2 lens from your camera maker will cost you upwards of $2-3K, with Fujifilm being the only other exception with their XF56mm F/1.2 R WR selling for $1,000. So if you want to get your entry in for the contest, head on over to my channel and you can find the official rules in today’s show notes. Ok now let’s get on with today’s episode on “L” brackets and hand grips.

What Is An “L” Bracket?

Well an “L” bracket is a piece of add-on hardware for your camera body that is attached to the bottom of your camera using the standard tripod mount to attach it securely to your camera so that you can quickly switch between horizontal and vertical orientation of your camera on your tripod. These brackets are generally made of high quality machines aluminum and painted black to match the color of most cameras. An additional “nice to have” is that these brackets generally have a base that is Arca Swiss compatible eliminating the need for an Arca Swiss tripod plate and the Arca Swiss groove is on both the bottom and on the left side of the bracket.

You can see an example of an “L” bracket in today’s show notes and you’ll see what I mean by the left side on your camera. The vertical portion on the left of your camera makes it easy to turn your camera 90 degrees and mount it in your tripod head for easy vertical photos for portraits or Instagram or any other reason you might need that orientation instead of horizontal. There are various companies on the market that make “L” brackets, from SmallRig to NEEWER and most of them are quite similar in design, with some companies like Three Legged Thing making their design a little more unique. Some of them have a gap on the left hand side portion and others do not. The really good ones are specific to your camera body model and these ones allow you to access your battery door or memory card slot without removing the bracket.

What is a Hand Grip?

So now you are probably wondering what is a hand grip? Well a hand grip is similar to an “L” bracket in that they attach to the bottom of the camera using the tripod mount point, only a hand grip also has more of a grip to the front right hand side of the camera body. These I generally recommend for those of us that have large hands and love the “range finder” camera body style such as the Fujifilm X-E line of cameras, my GFX50R or my X-Pro3.

These types of cameras tend to be more “brick” shaped with little or no existing hand grip, which can make it tricky maintaining a good grip on the body and poor ergonomics. You can find an image of a hand grip in the show notes as well. Now generally, these grips also offer the Arca Swiss groove on the bottom as well, making it easy to use your camera with those style tripod heads. The hand grips are generally made from machines aluminum as well and again most are painted black to match your camera, but these are available with both a black rubber bump for a grip and some like the one for my GFX50R are even available with a wooden bump as well to make your camera look more unique and sexy if you will. Now although the hand grip is more basic and generally doesn’t offer the left side piece for shooting vertical they are still in my opinion one heck of a handy item to have for your camera.

What Are Some of the Benefits of an “L” Bracket?

Well aside from being able to mount your camera horizontally or vertically, you also have the added benefit of being able to switch between these two orientations quickly and easily. There are basically two ways you can use the “L” bracket to mount your camera vertically. These first is to loosen the tripod clamp that holds the bracket and then pull the camera out, flip it and then clamp it back down vertically, but the faster option is to loosen your ball head and flip the head 90 degrees without ever loosening the clamp at all. This option can be a really game changer if you need to switch quickly and keep right on shooting without much in the way of a disruption.

A second benefit of the “L” bracket is panorama accuracy using one of these brackets, you can unclamp the tripod head, rotate your camera to vertical and then re-clamp it and you are locked in and can maintain your level so that as you move from shot to shot your panorama stitches together nicely when you are back home processing the images. Without an “L” bracket you are almost certainly going to run into issues where the camera ends up moved slightly and the images will be harder to stitch together later on so that “L” bracket will keep your horizon in your images nice and straight.

The third benefit of an “L” bracket is as you might have guessed, for portrait shooting in your studio. Basically, anytime you use your tripod you can benefit from having an “L” bracket attached to your camera. And with the ability to clamp your camera down in a vertical orientation will make your life in the studio so much better. You can go into each shoot knowing your camera is perfectly level and stable every time and when off the tripod the “L” bracket also acts as a nice base stand for your camera when you put it down. Using just a regular tripod plate on the bottom of your camera when you set your camera down chances are it will fall forward, which is much less likely to happen with the “L” bracket unless you are using a big, heavy lens. Additionally, there are some “L” brackets out there that have built in notches for your cables when shooting in the studio so you have a nice way to keep them out of your way when shooting, whether it is your USB cable for shooting tethered or the cabling for your studio lights.

One last benefit of the “L” bracket on your camera is it does offer your camera body some level of protection from knocks and bumps having this additional metal piece attached to your camera. It will also mean less wear and tear on that bottom tripod screw hole as if you are like myself and most other photographers who never remove our “L” brackets, we don’t have to constantly loosen and tighten that mount point causing stress to that mount point. But what are some “Cons” of using an “L” bracket? I don’t want you to think that having an “L” bracket is all sunshine and candy so let’s talk about the negatives as well.

Weight

First, there is the extra weight the “L” bracket or even the hand grip add to your camera. Although these plates are made of aluminum, they do add some overall weight to your camera body so if you are someone that is looking to have the lightest set up possible, you might not want an “L” bracket or hand grip added onto the total weight of your camera. Now as you know if you’ve been listening to the show for any amount of time, I have a lot of problems with my arms from all the years I shot with the large Canon bodies and lenses when I shot motorsports and I switched to the Fujifilm X Mount cameras over a year ago and although the “L” brackets or hand grips add some weight to my camera bodies, it’s not enough to bother me, but if might be less ideal for you.

Cost

The only other real “Con” of either of these add-ons is the cost associated with purchasing them. Since the good ones are camera specific you will need a new one anytime you change camera bodies and they can run upwards of $100 or more depending on the brand and how many features they add to the camera such as the afore mentioned cable management. One really popular brand of “L” brackets especially are made by a company called Really Right Stuff and their custom brackets are very high quality and useful but you pay a premium with some of theirs costing over $150 each. But there are other companies such as SmallRig that make really high quality ones as well with their generally being less expensive at around $35-$60 depending on your camera body. The other cost to consider is whether or not you already have an Arca Swiss ball head for your tripod as you will need one to use these brackets and grips. If you went with Arca Swiss from the beginning like many photographers do then you are already ahead of the game there so no additional expense there. If you opted at I did once upon a time to go with a proprietary tripod head like Manfrotto that uses their PL-200 plate system then you will also need to replace your tripod head to use these “L” brackets or hand grips.

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