Kirk Enterprises BL-D60 frame

I was rooting through a camera store's bargain bin when I came across this Kirk Enterprises BL-D60 frame. For $1 I couldn’t pass it up. Anyone impressed with really complicated CNC milling chunks of metal would feel the same.

What is it you ask?

The Arca-Swiss Quick Release System—originated in Europe—has parallel rails clamped together to fasten the camera—mounted on a plate—securely to the tripod head/gimbal mount. It is a great deal more secure system than depending on the small tripod screw mounted to a comparatively tiny QR plate to hold larger cameras securely. Yet it is relatively quick to use, as the rails slide into the head’s mount smoothly and securely. The camera is still dependent on the tripod screw ultimately, but the contact area of the camera’s mount to the Arca-Swiss plate can take a lot of the stresses out. Arca-Swiss standard quick release plates have been adopted by many manufacturers, including Benro / Arca Swiss / Markins / RRS / Kirk / Wimberley / SUNWAYFOTO and others.

Kirk Enterprises make a huge line of specific frames for individual camera models. These frames fit onto the camera without blocking any of the ports and controls so you can leave the frame on all the time. Then, to change from horizontal to vertical, you can slide the frame out of the tripod head’s clamp and slide the same rails located on the vertical part of the frame into the clamp. It is fast and very satisfying not to have to “flop” the tripod head in some way to get vertical orientation of the camera.

The Kirk Enterprises (they may be renamed Kirk Photo) plates sold in the $135 range. They are superbly finished. Like many things they now have competition to the point you can buy a “universal fit” Arca-Swiss style plate for $13.22

postage not included). Of course the universal fit plate is not as impressive as the exoskeleton exact Kirk version.

Just as an aside, I don’t have a single Arca-Swiss style tripod head in my extensive tripod collection. Most of my tripods are Slick, Manfrotto, and the like who haven’t jumped on the Arca-Swiss mounting system—at least in their consumer based offerings. 

Speaking of the attachment the Kirk Enterprises screw mount has a hex-head (shown right), so I expect you attach the camera to the plate once and it isn’t meant to be removed casually. Luckily I found the common shaft used in many combination screw driver handle/tips kits fits the screw head. Just reverse the regular screw tip in the socket and you have the right hex head driver!