Why is it that NIKON (and they’re not alone in this…) have so much difficulty listening to A: logic, and more importantly B: their buyers?
What’s the niggle this time? Tripod mounts.
Simple thing, or at least, one would have thought. For some years now tripod and accessory manufacturers have been using the chamfered adjustable quick-release system originaly designed by ARCA-SWISS. This allows cameras with a suitable ‘male’ mounting plate to be mounted/unmounted easily from tripods equiped with the ‘female’ mounting plate.
Tripod head and seperate camera mounting plate.
It would seem logical to build into the baseplate of a camera an ARCA style slot so that it could be quickly and easily mounted onto a tripod head (as in the above example)
However, for over 80 years all we have to show for camera ‘evolution’ is the constant use of a treaded 1/4 inch diameter hole so that the camera has to either be fixed directly to the tripod head, or an additional plate purchased to enable the two systems to work together.
Ridiculous.
It gets worse – NIKON include a tripod mounting arm on many of their longer/larger telephoto lenses. Two of these – the 70-200 and the 100-400 share the same ‘arm’ and of course, all it has is a 1/4 inch threaded socket…why not simply build-in the ARCA mount?
No – we must buy a new ‘arm’ – luckily a number of these exists, for only 30€ or so, but it does seem slightly ridiculous that we’re obliged to do this….
