As any jobbing landscape photographer worth their salt knows, you need to shoot both horizontal and vertical variations of a scenic shot to make your images more saleable – a traditional landscape-orientation shot makes for a fantastic opening spread in a magazine or header image on a website, while a portrait-orientation image is the one that picture editors will select for the cover or a full-page photo.
However, it's not as simple as unlocking your tripod head and allowing the camera to drop by 90 degrees; this moves the camera off-center and down by an inch or so, ruining your carefully aligned composition, in addition to throwing the center of balance from above the tripod, destabilizing your whole setup.
An L-bracket is the common solution; wrapping around your camera in an 'L' shape, and (usually) featuring a standard Arca-Swiss fitting along the edges, it can be unclipped from the tripod and reorientated from horizontal to vertical (or vice-versa) and reattached atop your tripod, with essentially the same composition.
But that whole unclipping the camera and having to reattach it again is still a bit of a pain, taking several seconds – where a sunset, for example, may be rapidly disappearing and light fading before you've had the chance to realign everything to your satisfaction.
That's where Benro's QRB95 quick-release rotation lens bracket comes in. The bracket stays attached to your tripod at all times, but the camera is secured on an arm that swivels through 90 degrees. This enables photographers to switch quickly and easily between landscape and portrait orientations, all the while keeping a smooth rotation of the camera around the dead center of the lens, so the setup remains firmly above the tripod. Not only does this offer enhanced stability, improved composition versatility and reduces strain on the equipment, but it drastically lessens the danger of the tripod toppling over.
This freedom of movement through 90 degrees means you're not restricted to just horizontal or vertical compositions either, enabling variations of images with a touch of creative 'Dutch tilt' to be easily tried too, for example.
To change the orientation of the shot, simply unlock the lever and position your camera to the desired orientation along the 90° range the bracket offers, all without disturbing the alignment of its center point. The QRB95 also features a cold shoe mount for the attachments of accessories, and it comes equipped with Arca-Swiss-compatible and 501PL (favored by Manfrotto) dual-purpose photo and video quick-release plates. The included Allen key can be magnetically attached to the bracket for easy storage, so you'll always have it on hand when you need it.
A ‘half-ring’ design enables photographers to effortlessly rotate orientations without obstructing the camera handle. This also makes it easier to use the built-in camera grip when operating the camera handheld. Further versatility is provided through the 3/8in mount, enabling the bracket to be directly mounted to monopods as well as tripods.
The height of the camera above the quick-release plate is adjustable and the setup will work with camera/lens combinations where the distance from the center of the lens to the bottom is between 36.7mm and 50.7mm, while the maximum diameter lens that the QRB95 will accommodate is 94mm.
Weighing in at just 290 grams, the bracket has a maximum payload capacity of 10kg and measures 13.5x14.6x7cm.
It will retail for for $90 / £90 / AU$180 when it goes on sale shortly, an can already be pre-ordered.
You may also be interested in our guide to the best tripods
