Review: Zelda L-Bracket For Nikon Z 5, 6, 7, 6 II, 7 II by 3 Legged Thing
Upon upgrading to Nikon Z 6II , I bought an L-bracket (Zelda L-Bracket For Nikon Z 5, 6, 7, 6 II, 7 II Cameras ), which is an L-shaped piece of metal that can be attached to the camera body and clamped to the tripod head.
The L-bracket comes in handy when shooting vertically (portrait orientation). Without it, the camera is awkwardly hanging on the side, as seen below, and if the lens attached is heavy, the tripod head cannot support the weight and the camera gets shifted downwards while doing long exposure (and ending up with a blurry photo).
Shooting vertically without using an L-bracket.
On the other hand, the camera with the L-bracket attached is always placed at the top of the tripod head, allowing to keep the center of gravity over the support base, thus it’s perfectly balanced and remains stable.
Zelda L-Bracket For Nikon Z 5, 6, 7, 6 II, 7 II in use. I chose Copper among three colours available (Copper, Grey, Black).
BUT, there is one big problem here. I didn’t notice this until I was out shooting with the L-bracket for the first time (and got panicked 😂), but the accessory terminal for my cable shutter release gets completely blocked, as it’s located on the bottom side that’s clamped to the tripod head.
This is like a design flaw to me. It defeats the purpose if the cable shutter release cannot be used together with the L-bracket. I could instead opt for a “remote” shutter release, which won’t be affected by this problem, but I still prefer using the cable shutter release, so my solution (compromise 😅) is as follows. Not a perfect solution, but it seems to work without affecting the stability.
Moving the camera to right a bit to give a space for the cable release to be plugged into the accessory terminal. A little awkward, but it works!
This problem aside, I really like Zelda L-Bracket. In the past, I rarely shot cityscapes in portrait orientation, but it has changed recently. Nowadays, I’m shooting more cityscapes in portrait orientation, and since I always do a few minutes of long exposure, the L-bracket is quickly becoming an indispensable item for my photography. 😀
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About the Author: LASTLIGHTS.NET is a passion project of Joey J, a Singapore-based Japanese photographer primarily shooting cityscape photography with long exposure at blue hour. Visit his Home Gallery (30 most favourite photos taken) or download his free eBook, Getting Started with Long Exposure Photography.