Plaubel Makina 67 Plate and Grip

You might be asking what this is doing here.

As I'm sure many of you know: when you're a camera person, you have camera person friends… and you end up having a lot of camera conversations. This came from one of those chats with David, a Plaubel user (and he uses his to great effect).

He was saying the Makina 67 was clearly designed around a beautiful, minimalist body (tick ✅) — but ergonomics came second. It's light by medium format standards, but still a handful, and your hands don't really have anywhere to go.

Plaubel clearly recognised this because they released a grip plate during production… but I get the sense the B team handled that one. It's not great.

The attachment bolt sits proud, so the camera can't sit flat on a table. And if you want to add a tripod plate as well, it has to thread into this janky bolt instead of sitting flush — which I personally wouldn't want to trust.

And maybe the most annoying part in 2026: despite being an afterthought, the original grips now go for outrageous money purely because they're scarce.

So we set about fixing the design flaws — and adding a few improvements along the way:

• The attachment bolt is flush with the plate, so the camera can sit flat on a table (lens retracted — it's a big cantilever once extended).
• A tripod plate can screw into the plate itself, not the attachment bolt.
• Better again: the plate incorporates an Arca-style dovetail along most of its length, so it can slide straight into most tripod heads.

The plate is CNC machined from 6061 aluminium and will be anodised black — which I think actually suits the body better than the original's piano-gloss finish.

• Grip: Near-identical form to the original, but instead of heavy metal + rubber it's MJF nylon in black. The nylon has a really pleasing texture, so there's no need for rubberisation.
• Mounting: Heat-set inserts with pull-out strength north of 30 kg.
• Compatibility: If you already own an original grip and just want the improved plate, the parts are fully compatible — you can bolt the original grip straight on.

Pieces of nitrile rubber pad out the contact points (like the original) to avoid marring the body. Of course grit can find its way into any gap, so if scratches are a worry, a bit of protective tape goes a long way.