Peak Design has unveiled Field Bracket, a brand-new, modular L-bracket system that promises to overcome the compromises of traditional L-brackets.
As Peak Design explains, L-brackets have long been a valuable piece of kit for photographers, enabling them to very quickly swap between landscape and portrait orientation shooting on a tripod. Rather than needing to move the entire tripod head from one orientation to the other, which often means moving multiple parts and occasionally precarious balancing acts on uneven terrain, an L-bracket supports both horizontal and vertical shooting without moving the tripod at all. Photographers simply unclip the camera, swap its orientation, and attach it again.
However, Peak Design argues that for nearly as long as photographers have been making good use of L-brackets, the general design of the brackets has remained “unchanged, fixed in form, and often at odds with the rest of a photographer’s kit.”
The company promises that its new Field Bracket “rethinks” the classic accessory by embracing a modular design that adapts to a photographer’s needs.
At the core of the new Peak Design Field Bracket is a camera-specific baseplate that is machined from recycled aluminum to fit supported camera bodies snugly. The baseplate works alongside a custom Peak Design Field Latch mechanism, which lets photographers remove the Field Bracket’s upright piece in seconds without any tools, immediately transforming the Field Bracket into a low-profile baseplate. The upright section can also be repositioned to provide clearance for tethering and other cables.
“The best camera accessories disappear into your workflow until you need them. That idea shaped every decision we made with Field Bracket,” says Peak Design Founder and CEO, Peter Dering.
“Instead of asking photographers to permanently attach functionality they only use some of the time, we built a system that can transform in seconds while remaining just as rigid and dependable as a traditional L-bracket.”
The new Field Bracket sits at the center of an expandable system. There’s a new Peak Design Beacon Finder Tag, the first tracker designed specifically to fit inside an Arca-compatible camera plate.
Users can also swap out the Field Bracket’s upright piece with an optional Cheese Plate, which creates a lightweight rig with 1/4-20 and 3/8-16 mounting points plus a cold shoe, enabling users to easily attach lights, microphones, monitors, and other accessories to their rig.
To support better handheld shooting, photographers can also attach a new optional Hand Strap to the Field Bracket.
“Across the system, Field Bracket preserves access to camera ports and controls while cleanly integrating with Peak Design Capture, Peak Design camera straps, and a wide range of third-party accessories,” Peak Design says.
Pricing and Availability
For the 17th time, Peak Design is launching a new product first via Kickstarter, providing prospective buyers a chance to get the new product at a reduced price. The Peak Design Field Bracket campaign begins today, starting at $125.
Camera-specific Field Brackets are available for select Canon, Fujifilm, Leica, Nikon, and Sony camera systems. A full list of currently supported cameras is available on Kickstarter.
The Field Bracket’s MRSP will be $149.95, while accessories like the Beacon Finder Tag, Cheese Plate, and Hand Strap start at $39.95.
Image creditsPeak Design
