Question for photographers...What is this?

[jcwade]

Hi All,
I just purchased an old Star D tripod. It is just like the Tiltall Classic.
It had a plastic platform attached to the post.
I asked the seller what it was and he didn't know.
I have searched the web to no avail so I figured I would ask here.

What is this?

[Nostril Cheese]

Looks like a base plate for cameras to screw on to. The top pic shows a circular one. That one is certainly used for cameras.

[Scott Douglas]

What happens when you pull up on that big black handle?

[jcwade]

The black handle locks the plate on the post.

[fanaudical]

Support plate for an auxiliary large flash?

[Scott Douglas]

Is that stud coming out of the black plate a 3/8-16 or a 1/4-20 thread?
If the former, it looks like an early style tripod mount.
Could be used for mounting a flash unit too.

[Scott Douglas]

That would make a great mount for a bellows attachment to be used for macro outdoors.

[jcwade]

I though it was for a flash too. But don't google large stud with safe search off.
I am not sure of the size but it is very large and about 15mm across.

[Scott Douglas]

That looks like a 1/2-13 or so thread.

Is the underside of that plate pretty robust?

[Scott Douglas]

Does the pan head come off easily so you can remove the black plate easily if it's in your way?

[jcwade]

Yes, the underside is ribbed and supported so it can hold quite a bit and I can slide the post out and take it off easily.

[Googam]

That's a very fancy multi function camera tripod. Used for macro photography & time lapse. You can mount a 35mm camera on the round plate & it will tilt/swivel & stay fixed in place with the arm adjusters. With a variety of adapters, you can attach small movie cameras & ancillary lighting.

[javadog]

Looks like a 5/8" male thread. Possibly used for mounting a microphone when using a video camera on the main tripod mount.

[GH85Carrera]

We used mounts like that often at the professional photolab I worked at.

I used a "tripod" that had three feet, and a central tube that was 12 inches in diameter, and had a foot pedal to pump it up with air to adjust the height of the camera. We were not mounting little portable cameras, but I swapped between a 4x5 Sinar P and a 8x10 Sinar P. Like the name says they used 4x5 film or a sheet of 8x10 film. About 8 bucks cost per click of the shutter, back 30 years ago.

We produced a transparency, (think of it as a really huge 35 mm slide) of customer's artwork. If an artist wanted to make a print run of posters or use the image in any offset printing they would come to us to make a transparency that the client took to the separator to have them scan the transparency on a drum scanner. Imagine a oil painting or water color painting that is 30x40 inches and bigger. There was no other way to scan it. We were hired to haul the equipment to Tulsa to the Philbrook Museum to photograph a painting by Leonardo da Vinci that was owned privately, and the owner had mortgaged it and the bank required it be stored at a museum. It was sold to the Getty museum for 18 million. I got to touch the edges of the painting. She had some other "cheap" 4 million dollar painting she sold as well.

Anyway, back to the mount, it looks a lot like the ones we would screw securely to the bottom of the view camera, and than just slide onto the tripod and click it in place and use the handle to squeeze the slide bar to immobilize it. One person could do it with ease and not risk dropping a camera that cost more than most cars at the time. So it is just a "quick release mounting shoe" if it is like the ones we used.

It had to have a receiver on the tripod that fit that shoe precisely.