So, you get home from your shoot, and you begin to unpack and clean your gear. It was a good shoot, and you can’t wait to get into your shots, because you are on a deadline. Sound familiar? I thought so.

That Manfrotto 026 tilting umbrella bracket that you saw Coward and Zarias using really worked well, didn’t it? It let you feather the light and you think the shots are going to be some of the best you took. So you grab your gear, blow off the dust, make sure everything is clean, and back in the right compartments in your bag. Your flash triggers, PC cables and your 026’s are going into your lighting box when your heart stops…where is the round knob which tightens your umbrella shaft in the holder??

You go back to the bag, empty it, run your hands through all the pockets which seem cavernous now, and come up with bubkis. That knob is G-O-N-E gone. You go to the Manfrotto site, and look up the part #026-10 to find it is on backorder EVERYWHERE, and on the Manfrotto site its almost $15USD excluding VAT. You don’t need this grief, and put the issue aside and get to editing.

A week has gone by, and your model absolutely loves your shots. So much, in fact, she wants to have another go of it. You pack your gear, and like a smart photographer you are checking your trigger batteries, checking off your cables from your pack list, test firing your flashes, and grabbing the eneloops out of the fridge and putting them into your flash external battery pack. Then it hits you…Damn…that knob you never got around to finding and replacing on the umbrella bracket you chucked back into the lighting box…you want to do a two light set up..NOW WHAT??? 

Fear not, it can be as simple as a quick trip to your local home improvement store on the way to the shoot. Look above at the shot of my 026 which I lost the knob which tightens the umbrella shaft: the dimensions of the metric screws you need, depending on which of the bolts, the big or the small you lost are there. If you’re unable to see the pics, the small bolts size is M6x1.00 and the large bolt size is M8x1.25. Most any hardware or home improv shop will have the size. You will not find the fancy molded head on the cheap bolts at the store (for 2 of each I paid $2.97 after tax) but you can use your multi-tool if need be, but heck, hand tight will hold your umbrella just fine!

Great shooting, and amazing light to you!

6Manfrotto026 spareparts gear DIY,