This is a reasonably generic “Arca-Swiss" style L-bracket. In this top view of the L-bracket you can see a attachment point for wrist or shoulder strap. If you need some-thing to keep you awake at night—although the whole bracket is made of cast metal—it is perhaps the weakest point of the L-bracket.
The whole Arca-Swiss mount system is worth exploring. Arca-Swiss mounts originated in the 1950’s. Originally designed for mono-rail view cameras they are still being made by the original company.
Arca-Swiss makes three types of mount—
Classic that has a screw closing on dual channels (38 mm and 26 mm)
Fliplock has a three-step closing, again in dual channel
MonoballFix® has Press-to-Lock in single channel (26 mm)
The brackets, rails and clamps are also being made by a large number of other companies. This can lead to some problems as anyone claiming they make “Arca-Swiss style” mounts may not be as exact as the original.
For example the Fliplock rails and mounts are factory adjusted to match. The company says you are free to adjust your mount to some other manufacture’s rails, but suggests you stay with one other manufacturer so you won’t have to keep changing adjustments.
The rails come in several grades of complexity.
The best mount is one made specifically for your camera. They won’t block important ports or memory/battery doors while catching the camera base at several points at once.
There are straight rails that are adjustable for camera balance on the tripod head.
There are “L-brackets” that have two rails held at right angles. These rails allow you to change the camera from horizontal to vertical quickly and exactly.
There are modular L-brackets that are held at the elbow by screws. These brackets allow specific needs to be addressed.
Arca-Swiss make specific camera mounts for a large number of cameras. Other manufacturer’s make their own specific camera mounts, often as L-brackets.
There is a class of Arca-Swiss style mounting called “Lens feet”. Many extreme telephoto lenses have built-in tripod mounts. These lens tripod mounts may not be at the point of balance of the lens with a camera mounted. Adding a foot—really a rail—to the lens allows the balance point to be adjusted. This is really a lifesaver when using a gimbal mount. Leaving the rail attached makes a secure “T” handle when carrying the lens.
There are some important features to note in this under-view of the generic bracket. There are set screws at the ends of the bracket furthest from the elbow. With a clamp-style mount on the tripod simply loosening the screw would allow you to slide the camera out and in from the elbow until it stops at the set-screw. Some would find this handy, some would be petrified the camera could slide out if the screw wasn’t tight. It is worth noting some rails have set screws at each end so you have to really open the jaws to get the rail out. More secure but slower.
There are larger screws holding the rails at right angles (you can see at the elbow there are two recessed sockets). This makes this generic L-bracket a modular L-bracket! I guess you can take off the vertical section and attach it facing “down” instead. Ah, the possibilities…
The bracket to camera screw has a folding handle to aid in attaching without resorting to a coin or flat bladed screw driver. It is recessed enough the bracket sits flat on a surface without tipping.
There is a tripod screw socket at the end of the adjustable slot in case you want to switch between Arca-style rail brackets and conventional QR plates or even conventional tripod screws.
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