I often travel with two tripods. One is my larger RRS TFC 3 with a large gimbal head; the other is my Ascend -14L with head built into the tripod column. But sometimes while using my telephoto lens on my gimbal head I want mount my landscape camera onto the tripod. If I attached the camera using the base plate, the camera would be aimed to the side, not forward so I could look through the viewfinder.
But there is a simple solution to this problem; the Wimberley M-8 tripod head. Take a look at this bracket above. You attach this to your existing baseplate or L bracket, which then allows you to mount your camera onto a gimbal head…but pointed the right way. The plate uses the same Acra-Swiss groove style that all the RRS gear uses.
At the top of this post is the camera mounted using the M-8 adapter. With this in your pack, you don’t have to bring a second head or tripod for landscape images, just attach the M-8 to your camera and you can use your gimbal head. Cool!