Acratech 2172 Quick Release Plate for Canon 5D Mark II

2013-12-16T19:00:00

This plate fit my Canon 5D mkII perfectly and does exactly what it's supposed to do. I'd heartily recommend it to anyone who never switches between tripods or who just uses arca-swiss compatible heads, as it is well made, light, low profile, and attractively minimal. It is not for me, however, for the following reasons: 1) I dislike the design decision to use a hex wrench screw to attach it to the camera; it means that you need a special-- if not entirely uncommon-- tool to tighten or remove it. 2) Given that special hex screw, I'd have preferred a design with an additional screw mount on the bottom of the plate, so that I could attach my camera to an alternate tripod in situations where I don't have the hex wrench and hadn't brought my own tripod head. Because I use a non-arca-compatible head for video, and because I use a Zacuto viewfinder accessory, I need to be able to remove the tripod plate on short notice. Again, these are less flaws than deliberate decisions that don't suit my needs. I'm sorry that I'll be stuck with a chunky off-brand tripod plate instead of this sleek one, but it would be a potentially costly problem for me to be unable to remove this plate in a situation where I'd planned to shoot video. On a side note, I presume this problem could also be solved by replacing the hex screw with a standard phillips head screw. For the price, I'd just rather buy something that comes with the design I want.

MATTHEW H.