This bracket is for raising your flash up about 16" over the lens, thus avoiding some red-eye, or in my case, allowing a flash with a Better Beamer to be at the optimum angle when using long lenses. See BELOW for why I find this setup superior to other flash mounting systems for my intended usage.
It is designed to attach to the top of a lens plate or attached by some custom method. The lens plate thus must be a double-dovetail (grooved on top and bottom of plate) design.
The clamps are both "built-in" to the bracket, they are milled of a single piece of aluminum not attachments or arca clamps added to the bracket.
Very nicely milled and finished.
The upper clamp also has a 1/4" thumbscrew with lowered shoulder that can attach to the bottom of a flash unit. I found this a bit redundant as the clamp alone works quite well at holding the flash unit. Removing this screw makes a very sleek and simple flash bracket. Saves a bit more weight as well.
And light weight -- 7.6 oz.
Prior to this product becoming available (thanks to the wide availability of CNC milling machines and good quality aluminum), I looked at the other commercially available (name brand) units that were all much $$ and coping them, built my own using off the shelf components from that bay place, Amazon and the hardware store:
* 2 piece generic bracket from China = $18.
* Generic arca clamp for bottom = $27.
* Misc hardware for holding flash unit and attaching clamp = $5
* Grind bracket to allow tightening knob of clamp to move freely
* Tweak adjustments of height and how to attach to lens plate!
* Materials = $50. !!!
* Labor A couple hours !!
* Weight = 13oz
It worked ... but man is the Desmond unit Sleak! Cheap! Light!
As far as I can tell, this is the same as the Jobu flash mount that costs $149! A Great deal.
BELOW: Why I like this type of setup vs the gimbal mounted brackets. This unit stays on the camera/lens combo rather than being mounted on the tripod or gimbal head. Thus you can remove the camera/lens as integral unit (I know it doesn't happen with the big boys often, but when you want to shoot handheld or brace the camera/lens using something other than your tripod, you can do it and keep the flash attached. With the gimbal mounted brackets, you also have to disconnect the off-camera flash cable from the body before before disconnecting body/lens from the gimbal head. Conversely, for setting up your rig, if you choose to pre-mount your body on the lens, you can premount the flash on the bracket as well and mount the entire thing at once. You can then take it apart as a unit as above to store the camera for quick handheld or window mount use. Much easier in my experience.
The other issue that folks like to argue is the merits of an adjustable flash bracket both in height and angle. My homemade unit had about 5" of adjustable height. Once I had it finished, I found that I never adjusted the height - it stayed at almost the identical height that the Desmond unit is. As far as angle adjustment, my experience has been that with a super tele, the angle of straight ahead rather than up or down a bit, is pretty much perfect. When shooting stuff really close - think macro - it might behoove one to aim the flash down a bit but that simply doesn't factor in with what these units are designed for - far away shooting!
Hope this helps,
Steve
Customers also viewed these products
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Reviews with images
Submit a report
A few common reasons customers report reviews:
- Harassment, profanity
- Spam, advertisement, promotions
- Given in exchange for cash, discounts
When we get your report, we'll check if the review meets our Community guidelines. If it doesn't, we'll remove it.
