On the camera, effectively yes: the smaller of the two published sizes is what a body carries underneath. The larger one appears higher up the support, between legs and head, and a bushing is what joins the two.
Two sizes, both published as tripod connections, and each in its own place on the assembly.
Where each one sits
The smaller is under the camera — eight titles in this catalogue print it — and it is also what field monitors, cages and small clamps present or accept.
The larger is between legs and head, and on studio and light stands; three titles print it. Makers put the larger size where the bending moment is greatest, which is a design convention rather than anything the designation requires.
What the designations fix
The diameter and the pitch. Two parts that both declare the same size screw together, from any maker, in any order. That promise is narrow and it is kept exactly.
What they do not fix
Not the load, which belongs to the head or the legs and is declared separately. Not the screw length: one cut for a thick plate bottoms out in a shallow socket and holds nothing, and plate thicknesses are published inconsistently. Not the plate profile above it, which in this catalogue means a shape no organisation publishes at all.
Where this page and the maker’s own manual disagree, the manual decides. Every focal length, aperture, guide number, stop of stabilisation, load rating and sealing claim on this page is reported from the manufacturer’s own documentation, with its unit written as published, and named as such — none of it is measured here. An engraved figure is reported as the maker engraves it, and is never restated in another convention, because the two are not the same number. And for anything a camera is mounted on: a maximum load is a static figure the maker declares, and it describes nothing else. It says nothing about behaviour in wind, vibration at the moment of release, or the torque a head holds once it is tilted away from level. Legs, head and plate each publish their own rating, and the lowest of the three is the one that governs.
What people ask before they commit
What is the bushing actually doing?
Changing the diameter of a joint and nothing else. It is a sleeve threaded for the larger size outside and the smaller inside. The load the support holds, the stiffness of its column and the behaviour of the head under torque are all unchanged — and none of them was ever described by either thread size.
Why does my camera twist on the plate?
Because a single screw permits rotation around itself under torque, and the thread does nothing to prevent it. Where a maker addresses this it is with a pin or a raised lip beside the screw, described in that listing’s own words: there is no shared designation for it, so a listing silent on the matter has not got one.
Last reviewed 12 September 2026