CalevPhoto

Wimberley macro brackets review

For some time, I have made use of a pair of Wimberley macro brackets.  Now that I have used them in a number of different situations, I thought I would share my experiences with them.

I had looked at brackets for several months prior to buying these.  In terms of macro brackets, the two main competitors are Really Right Stuff and Kirk Photo.  After some consideration, I chose the Wimberley macro brackets, but for those interested the following are the reasons I did not buy the other choices.

Really Right Stuff – For awhile, this was my first choice.  Only when I learned about the Wimberley brackets did I change my mind.  In order for the bracket to work with the MT-24EX, I needed to buy another flash mount.  Also, I needed at least one telescoping arm to get the flashes past the lens.  Therefore, the price came out a bit higher than the Wimberley solution.

The main reason I chose the Wimberley was flexibility.  The RRS solution is nice – but the Wimberley brackets can literally bend in almost any direction.  The RRS brackets are limited by the flexibility of the arm – which can be rotated around the bracket and extended.

Kirk Photo – This solution looks a bit more flexible than the RRS, but looks a bit flimsy.  I hesitated whether it would take a 580EX without issue or something heavier.  It is also not as flexible as the Wimberley.

Iguana taken in Mexico’s Riviera Maya.  Canon 180mm macro with two Wimberley lights. 1/125 f/7.1. 

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Not your ordinary car exhaust

One of the great things I love about snow is that it has to melt at some time or another.  When in melts, I try to be there.  Unfortunately, the weather was a bit cold today so not much melted, but I did get the chance to find a few drippies.

Today wasn’t a great day as far as drippies go.  Most of the ones I found were either too difficult to get at or weren’t dropping at a quick and predictable rate.  I did find this one in a rather unusual place though.

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L-plates, camera plates, and lens plates

When buying camera equipment, one of the most confusing areas I have found is in the area of lens plates and camera plates.  Therefore, in this post I will attempt to give the best explanation of them possible.  This information, with hope, will save you some money in the future, as you can quickly spend a lot of it when you start getting into brackets.

Lets get some basic definitions out of the way before we start.

Tripod – Those things, usually with three legs, that we use to hold our camera still.  Note that when you talks about professional tripods, only the legs are considered.  The head is sold separately.

Tripod Head – There are many types of heads you can buy for tripods – ball heads (the most common), panoramic heads, gimbal heads, panning heads, etc.  However, the important thing to remember is the tripod isn’t very useful without a head.  The head is what you put the camera on.

Plate – There are a number of different types of plates, which I will explain in more detail later in the post.  The short definition, though, is a plate is what allows you to place your SLR on the tripod head.

Bracket – This is a general term, but when I write about brackets here I generally mean something that holds something for the camera.  Usually, brackets hold lights – and flash brackets are among the most common types of brackets.  Note that macro rails and panoramic heads are not brackets.

OK, now that we have some basic definitions, lets look at what types of plates there are.

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