It appears to me that the Bogen-Manfrotto small rectangular mounting plate, #3157N, is UNIDIRECTIONAL. Always check the bottom of the plate to make sure you install it correctly. If you place it onto your spotting scope or binocular mount backwards, the Bogen Junior or the #3130Q head allows definite play, which could introduce undesired vibration or worse, risk of unintentional detachment.
I noticed such this morning, while experimenting with my Swarovski ATS65 HD, whose foot will fit directly into these mounts, with and without the plate, determining that if I used the plate, in one direction is was very snug, but reversed, the mounting jiggled. For someone digiscoping, this could degrade images.
The bottom of the plate, which I believe was redesigned a year or so ago, clearly has arrows showing the correct direction. But, I'm not sure that the instructions point out this small but potentially critical matter.
I noticed such this morning, while experimenting with my Swarovski ATS65 HD, whose foot will fit directly into these mounts, with and without the plate, determining that if I used the plate, in one direction is was very snug, but reversed, the mounting jiggled. For someone digiscoping, this could degrade images.
The bottom of the plate, which I believe was redesigned a year or so ago, clearly has arrows showing the correct direction. But, I'm not sure that the instructions point out this small but potentially critical matter.
