I guess everyone's seen the Berkley system cheeseplate. It's pretty cool... but i don't wanna pay that kind of money for what is basically a drilled piece of metal.

Does anyone know of any cheaper alternatives?

Or... how much would people be prepared to pay for a cheeseplate from the uk? It's almost worth getting some made if there was enough interest...

S

Food for thought if you have access to a 3D printer, or have a makerbot enthusiast group in the UK:

Video Camera accessory Cheese Plate by Habbycam - Thingiverse (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:11938)

Scott

I think they sell those for $225 each. It is a custom plate that is CNC machined on a machine that costs $100k to setup and $75/hour to operate. I know this because I own a shop full of these machines and write the checks every day. Technically Berkey is our competitor, but they certainly deserve some respect for being creative and capable while in my opinion offering products and very fair prices. It takes little effort to make the parts once all the hard work is behind you (laugh) - but getting it all designed, tweaked, re-designed, machined, anodized, etc - It is a TON of work to make a plate with holes drilled in it. It would be a different story if the market supported 10,000 pieces year, but it's not. Even a few hundred pieces is not even close to a mass production scenario.

It think they are super fair and offer a no excuses product that is ready to go out of the box. These comments are coming from a competitor so you trust that I am serious about this. Good stuff made in tiny quantities is expensive (relatively).

The Berkey System plate is a beautiful thing, however.

Why not buy one and cut it down to what you want.

Cheese Plates - Filmtools (http://www.filmtools.com/cheeseplates.html)

If you want it to be cheap it will likely require some labor on your part.

Ahh...just what i was looking for.

Thanks Chris.

I guess a lot has happened since 2011. I just got my FS100 and found GenusTech to Sale a Decent Cheese Plate for $59 (http://www.genustech.tv/collections/camera-cheese-plates/products/genus-top-cheeseplate-for-sony-nex-fs100-camcorder). Just in case anyone is interested. B & H sales the same one for $75.

The Cheese Plate came from GenusTech, which only took 2 days. Awesome, super fast shipping. So buying right from Genustech is probably the best bet. Very satisfied with the aluminum plate. Now, on to get a monitor arm to fasten to it.

I bought this one on eBay...

Sony NEX FS 100 Top Plate w Handle and Base Plate for Camera Tripod Mounting | eBay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sony-Nex-FS-100-Top-Plate-w-handle-and-base-plate-for-camera-tripod-mounting-/191596099821?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item2c9c0478ed)

The design is identical to the Berkey...might even be the same factory pumping them out because it has the same little oval recession where they stick the brand sticker...this just happens to say camtree. I've had it on my FS100 and it's solid. I bought it mainly for the handle to replace the crappy one that came with the camera but the base/rod system is really helpful too. No complaints.