Rangefinder Magazine
December 2004

Click Here for printable version of this article.

First Exposure by Peter Kotsinadelis
The Stroboframe Folding Flip Bracket

Over the years an assortment of camera brackets have come to market offering photographers innovative and useful features. Even so, one feature that always seems to have been overlooked was the actual size of the bracket. While this was not really an issue in use, it was something that often posed problems when transporting the bracket along with your gear. If you wanted to store the bracket in your camera bag along with your equipment, you might as well forget it, at least until now.

Pressing the red buttons will enable you to fold the bracket to a compact size of 8.5x3x3.75 inches, allowing it to easily fit into a pocket or camera bag.

Features
Stroboframe’s new Folding Flip bracket (from Tiffen) is a compact folding bracket based on their popular Quick Flip bracket series. Like other brackets, the Folding Flip will help eliminate red-eye and soften harsh shadows, but the main idea of this new bracket is that with the push of two buttons you can fold the bracket flat to a compact size of only 8.5x3x3.75 inches, allowing it to easily fit into a pocket or camera bag.

The Folding Flip has an extra-wide base with rubberized grip tape that you place on it to securely hold digital SLRs such as the Canon EOS Digital Rebel, the Canon EOS 20D or the Nikon D70. There are six camera-mounting slots located on this base to easily accommodate any 35mm or digital camera whether it has a centered or off-centered tripod-mounting socket. Two 1/4x20 threaded mounting knobs are supplied with the bracket, one slightly longer than the other, to securely fasten 35mm cameras or digital SLRs to the bracket.

A rotating flash arm keeps the flash centered over the lens, whether you are shooting horizontally or vertically, and a neoprene foam grip makes the bracket comfortable to hold. The flash shoe itself is a standard Stroboframe mounted on the rotating flash arm that can be positioned left or right within a three-inch area to easily position the flash directly over the lens.

	Unfolded and ready for use, the flash arm (top) height can be adjusted from 6.75 to 9 inches from the camera base.

When using a bracket such as this, a sync or off-camera cord is used to connect the camera to the flash. Since the flash pivots for vertical use, the distance from the camera to the flash increases, so care must be taken regarding the length of the cord. If not, an inadequate length may cause the cord to accidentally unplug from the camera or flash.

The Folding Flip can accommodate cameras ranging in size from small to medium by simply adjusting the distance between the bracket base and flash arm from 6.75 to 9 inches. You accomplish this using the small screw located on the side of the bracket just above the foam grip. It should be noted that this adjustment changes the distance from the camera lens to flash for horizontal shooting and also centers the position of the flash over the lens when using the bracket for vertical shooting. Care should be taken with larger SLRs, especially those with motor drives, as their size may exceed the capability of the Folding Flip bracket.

Weighing in at only 8.8 ounces, the Folding Flip is considerably lighter than comparable brackets but still has a solid feel. Additionally, all of Stroboframe’s camera anti-twist plates and quick-release accessories can also be used with the bracket.

In Use
When you pick up the Folding Flip bracket the first thing you notice is just how light it is. The second thing you notice is just how easy it is to fold the bracket down to a size that easily fits in a coat pocket or camera bag. Once you unfold the bracket everything locks in place and it is ready for use in only seconds.

I like the fact that there are adjustments to position the flash on the rotating flash arm as well as six slots on the wide base to position the camera. This flexibility helps ensure the bracket will work with any combination of camera and flash. The one thing that does take a little getting time adjusting to is using the bracket for vertical shooting. Here you rotate the bracket and flip the rotating flash arm so the flash is now directly over the lens while the camera is held vertically. This places the camera’s shutter release button at the bottom rather than at the top (see rotated photo).

The flash arm flips placing the flash above the camera for vertical images. The camera’s shutter release button would then be at the bottom.

Since I own several brackets including Stroboframe Quick Flips, I was eager to see how well the Folding Flip would compare. As I went through and mounted several different cameras I discovered the bracket could easily accommodate 35mm and digital SLRs, however, those with larger motor drives seemed a bit too large for this bracket. While it was nice to have the two different length 1/4x20 camera mounting knobs, the shorter one worked fine for all I tried. The extra mounting knob can be stored in a threaded receptacle underneath the bracket’s base for easy access. I found it better to keep the extra mounting knob elsewhere so the bracket could be set down on its flat base when using it with camera and flash mounted.

Overall, the Folding Flip is an ingenious design that offers photographers a lightweight bracket that can quickly fold to a small compact size for transport. For those using 35mm SLRs or moderately sized digital SLRs, when you consider the street price is under $70, the Folding Flip may be among the better bargains on the market today.

Peter Kotsinadelis is a writer/photographer living in Pleasanton, CA. He may be reached at peterk727@gmail.com.