Andy
Isn't there a piece of rubber between the QR plate and the scope's foot?
Does anybody have any easy solutions to the quick release plate working loose on scope base causing it to become unsafe ...anybody use Loctite Thread glue or anything similar.
What you want, as mentioned above, is a plate with an anti-rotation pin (if your scope foot has a receptacle--but many do not), or anti-rotation lip (my favorite solution), or that accepts the foot of your scope as the plate.
--AP
Hi Alexis,
Thank you very much for this excellent tip.
My Nikon 60 ED III has no pin receptacle, so the slippage of the QR plate was a constant irritation.
I'd not known that anti rotation plates were available. These hopefully will serve well.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...&linkId=ca7dba3bdaea11a71a7441e6f317caa2&th=1
The plate that you show in the link may work fine but it isn't to my taste. Looks excessively wide, and I don't like the use of rubber (red material). Essentially _anything_ from RRS or Kirk Enterprises (I like the Kirk PZ-17 for the Nikon Fieldscope) will be anti-rotation, but those plates are not cheap even when they are simple designs. Maybe something of a knock-off would be good, such as something from Desmond or this one from SunwayFoto https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Z5VCJ44
--AP
Well, I was not thrilled by the appearance either, but it was what Amazon threw up as a search result.
I may give the Sunway a try, it seems a calmer design, although there was a gripe about the retention screw on another model not being stainless, but chromed.
I got a "Really Right Stuff L84 Multi-Use Fore-Aft Plate with 1/4"-20 Screw" for my Kowa 663. The plate is 3.6 inches/92mm long and has a lip at one end to square the mounting of the scope to the plate and stop rotation. At $55 (B&H) it aint cheap, but the length allows me to move it back on an Arca clamp when I use it just for scoping and move it forward to counter the weight of a camera for digiscoping. I like it.
Regarding rubber pads on the top of some plates; I found that the pads themselves were the culprits causing twisting.
Another suggestion is to replace knurled or bail-type 1/4-20 plate screws with ones that have a bail, a flat screwdriver slot, and a hex socket for an allen key. I like using a ball-end allen key because it is easier to control the torque you apply when you just use your finger tips to do the final tightening.
Interesting insight about the rubber pads. It makes sense that they might cause some twisting.
...The limiting factor is my fear that the scope fitting is not robust, even though Nikon strengthened it with a metal insert after early issues were reported.
Glad for the report that the inexpensive plates are working well. As for tightening, I don't think you should be too concerned. We haven't heard (on Birdforum) of socket failures on the ED50 since the design was changed (helicoil was replaced with a solid insert). Also, I am of the opinion that constant loosening/tightening/rattling around loose is probably more stressful than a consistent solidly tight (but not over-torqued) connection. That's one reason why I don't like a rubber interface--it inspires overtightening to prevent wiggling and loosening.
--AP