lnh

I have the PFL-XT2 (full base) which I ordered directly from China. It's interesting that Adorama is selling that version as it was my understanding it was made for sale everywhere but the USA due to a "so called" patent by RRS which they assert covers all 2 piece L-brackets. I guess the USPO considers screwing one piece of metal to another patent worthy. Another Sunwayfoto importer has told me they won't order any 2 piece L-bracket for any camera for the USA. A different small US manufacturer has discontinued producing all of their 2 piece L-brackets. I've been told prior art exists for this type of design, but the threat of litigation is way too expensive for a market which is pretty small. Anyways, I've had the bracket for a while and have been writing a extremely detailed review and comparing it with the RRS BXT2. Not sure everyone is interested of this level of detail, but when I publish it, I'll come back and give a link. The TL;DR version is that it's a perfectly nice L-bracket at 1/3 the price of RRS. In general I'd recommend it, but if you do a lot of portrait mode tethered shooting on a tripod, the RRS BXT2 is a better choice. I don't know if the extender products from RRS (CRS) and Kirk (LBA-1) will fit the PFL-XT2, but if they do it might work for those situations as well, but you're then 2/3 of the way to cost of a BXT2 and it's another piece to carry. The PFL-XT2 will fit a Canon shutter release and still fit in an Arca clamp. It's a bit of cable threading gymnastics to get it in there and pushed in the socket, but it works and isn't too bad. There are also several other nits I have with their design, but nothing that the right split ring can't address. Since I use Peak Design anchors I wanted an attachment solution which doesn't use the X-T2 triangular split rings. I like the full base version as you can place it on a table without concern for knocking it and having it sit awkwardly at an angle. Also like the ability to only have the base. The one piece is probably more rigid.

I was able to connect to PC via router. Installed the PC software and it connected. With that said, it truly wasn't worth the effort. As another person posted, the PC software looks like something out of the Windows 95 time frame. Even with a good connection the transfers took a very long time, and going back and adding additional shots was beyond painful. It took forever for the software and camera to figure out which additional pictures needed to be transferred slowly starting from the first shot and checking each one in turn. I couldn't find a way to select shots to upload; it seemed to be all or nothing.[ I could live with the software being an old ugly duckling if it functioned well, but it doesn't. Uninstalled it from my PC as popping the SD-Card or connecting via USB is much faster. Also connected to a smartphone running Android v7. Again, I was underwhelmed by the smartphone app. Leaving aside how it looks visually, it just doesn't provide the capability I was hoping to see. I was hoping to get around the 3 shot exposure bracket limitation when shooting HDR by setting the camera to exposure bracket and shoot off 3 shots and then change exposure compensation and shoot off another 3. Unfortunately the software doesn't support bracketing even if the dial is set that way on the camera. Some competing cameras are already doing stuff like focus stacking in-camera. This would be another nice capability to see in connected software. I'm really liking the X-T2, but improved connectivity would set the system apart in a way that compliments its beautifully rendered images.