Archives for May 2013

RRS L bracket for Canon 5D MKII

Canon 6D vertical grip release and RRS (Really Right Stuff – Company) 5D MKII L bracket interference ball head from them over 10 years ago.  Really Right Stuff makes hundreds of different types of camera accessories, but one of the number one items they make is the L bracket.   The basic L bracket is a great tool for any camera since it allows a user to rotate the camera from the landscape or horizontal position to the portrait or vertical position without having to lower the entire head assembly into the drop outs of the tripod head.  This saves a tremendous about of time since the user won’t have to re-level the camera or line it back up with the subject matter.  I have been a user of various L brackets since my 1st Nikon D1x and as I moved to Canon DSLR”s I quickly adopted L brackets for those cameras also.  The one issue that tends to come up is that most times you can’t mount the L bracket from one DSLR design to a new camera.  This is because the width of the base of the camera may be different or the location of critical ports may have moved.  If your camera has a grip option you will have to determine if you want the grip installed and buy the L bracket for the camera with the grip mounted.   I always use the vertical grip with my Nikon or Canon cameras since it gives you a greater battery capacity and tends to balance out the camera.

When I purchased my 6D and old off my last 5D MKII I still had one of the RRS L brackets that I had not sold.  I was hoping that I could just mount the L bracket to the 6D.  On initial inspection it looked like I was in luck.  The L bracket easily lined up with the base screw and had a good fit across the width of the base.  It stuck out just a bit, but that was not a big concern for me.  I was also able to get access to all of the covered ports on the left side of the 6D.  As you can see in the pictures below, the fit was very good.

The feel and fit were perfect and at first I was pretty happy with the way the RRS L bracket had taken to the 6D.  However  I quickly realized that there was one issue.  Canon changed out on the 6D grip how the user opens the battery compartment.  Instead of the back door folding down as the way it worked on the 5D MKII, Canon switched to a more conventional setup.  Now the battery compartment slides out from the side, like how the batteries mount into the pro bodies like the Canon 1ds MKIII.  This causes a bit of a problem since the battery door will no longer open.  As you can see in the images below the hard frame rail of the L bracket blocks the door.

Everything other feature of the 6D works great, but you will have some problems with the batteries.  Since the design of the Canon vertical grips requires all the camera batteries to be carried in the grip, it means that you will have to remove the L bracket each time you charge the batteries.  This is of course a bit of a pain and makes the use the 5D MKII L bracket on the 6D not a good solution long term.  I am still using it on my 6D as I only use the Canon DSLR for night photography and thus it’s not my prime landscape camera.  I can charge up the 2 batteries before a night shoot and with 2 batteries installed, a 6D will last all night long.   Long term I will eventually break down and purchase the RRS L bracket for the 6D, but it’s not on my list of most urgent needs right now.

You can get by with this solution, just make sure you carry with you the necessary allen wrench that lets you release the L bracket from the body of the 6D.