I ordered a collection of photography brackets to try and come up with a solution to mounting my GH2 on the R-300 a full 90-degrees off from the original mounting position to allow for room for the extra-large NP-F970 Sony camcorder battery. I managed to come up with a few solutions for a compact mount that still allows the GH2 and my 20mm f1.7 lens to function without seeing the edges of the ring light in the frame…
I started by using 2 90-degree flash brackets. The 2 screw holes to either side of the stock bracket that comes from F&V don’t use the standard 1/4″ threaded holes but instead use a finer 10-24 threaded screw (which I feel is a stronger hold for less torque). The fit is pretty tight and the camera cannot possibly get any closer to the ring light. I really wish F&V could make this light thinner though…
I really like the compactness of this arrangement. I think in the future I will look into a fig-rig bracket that may give me a grab handle on either side of the ring light now that it is rotated 90-degrees and see what I can come up with. There is truly no way to make this setup any smaller. I think with a couple of grab handles, I could work with this configuration for long periods of time without any fatigue.
Even with the camera butting up against the body of the ring light, I still had access to any controls I needed.
I next tried a “battery re-locator” accessory that F&V offers. You may have seen this little device in previous posts during my testing. It actually throws off the balance in a rather pleasant way as it is not as front-heavy. The stock bracket from F&V for mounting the camera only allows the camera to get as close as you can see above –but the frame of the ring light was still just outside of view so that’s good. I hate to do it but I may have to cut up the stock bracket to chop off the light mount feature at the bottom because, for hand held use, it is really in the way. I also don’t need the bracket as far back as it goes. Still, I may eventually wind up with a 15mm rail system that is compact enough not to need to butcher the original stuff!
As you can see, the camera is slightly further away from the ring light so I can actually fit my finger in front of the camera (although not really necessary for hand-held work I’m doing.
Ultimately, I’m not completely sold on either of these configurations as they both have their weaknesses but at least I think I’m getting closer to a solution to using these two products together. I’m still searching for a fig-rig bracket that I can try out and I have 15mm rail brackets on order from China. Wish me luck everyone!!