If you have ever covered an event, or just needed the ability to shoot vertical and horizontal with a similar light pattern, you’ll need a flash bracket.

You know that wonderful piece of metal that attaches to the camera and holds the flash away from the body. It can either flip, rotate, or…..hmmm…. those are about your choices as you change formats.
We have been on a hunt for the best solution out there. So we looked all over.
Now, of course, everyone has different needs, and can handle different sizes and weights of bracket.
Custom Brackets makes a great system, with brackets that can be, well, customized to your needs. It has some weight to it, though.
JustRite also makes a similar system that will rotate your camera on ball bearing track to shift from vertical to horizontal.
Both are in the $300 -$400 range and are units that are easy to carry with camera mounted, but a little unwieldy to pack in your bag.
Stroboframe has some solutions which are simpler, but we found that we had to carry a micro leatherman pocket tool to tighten stuff up, after a real assignment workout. Also, not a small unit.

And we asked all of the shooters around us. Honestly, when we were in the photog pits in SXSW, you see a bunch of shooters and ask what works for them. No one seemed happy with what they had, but all recommended this one:
The Newton Flash Brackets!

After visiting the site, it seemed like a right deal. Size appeared right, nice and small. a coupla photo illustrations helped.
A phone call with the owner confirmed a purchase.

When the box came, it was almost shocking how small the box was. A good sign.

The unit was in it’s folded position, and it was TINY!
We ordered the needed flash plate, and set about to setting the rig and putting in all in hand.
Nikon has us checking out a D90, so that was the guinea pig unit , with an 18-200mm lens.

Bracket in the center, with small bag of included tools
The instructions are thorough but we still had one more call with the manufacturer who guided a perfect fit. he was happy that we called instead of just sending it back.
No way. This looked like the real deal.

Well, we are very happy to say that after a coupla shoots, this is a love fest.

You hold the camera, not a grip, so you’ve saved some space.

The move from horizontal to vertical is smooth and solid, like you need it to be.

The Nikon SC-29 TTL Coiled Remote Cord we use is in a tight pattern and you have to shut off the sensor on the camera because it will just hit the back of the speedlight in the horizontal mode.
They also offer a quick release piece for the flash mount so you can change out flashes easy or pack with the cable off.
Still not sure if we need it.
They offer a service to shorten your cord (you can see it wrapped around the bracket). We understand the reason, just not ready to commit to that, since we may still want to pull the flash off camera. Want the option, anyway.

So we love this unit: solid, small, and does exactly what it says it should and designed by a shooter who knew what we need. It’s a small operation so you may have to wait but it’s worth it.
Cost? for what we demo’d about $230. USD. Well worth it.
And we have a bunch of images here because we got some but until it was in our hands we didn’t full get the awesomeness of this.
Some more images after the jump. And just because we wish there were more on the site, to fully get the brilliance.

This is the right unit for the shooter who needs to pack light and small. It’s a solid pro bracket backed by a solid citizen. Highly recommended!