What's the point of the little "nipple" on tripod mounting plates?

I've always wondered what the little metal "nipple" is for on tripod mounting plates...

This (image stolen from the Interweb)

LowriderS10 wrote in post #9946856
I've always wondered what the little metal "nipple" is for on tripod mounting plates...

This (image stolen from the Interweb)

50 dollar follow up question...can i take it off? It's just scratching the bottom of my G9 up and I can see very little point to it aside from perhaps keeping tension on the mounting screw??

I've wondered the same. My cheaper tripod has one. My better tripod has none.

Some cameras/videocameras have two holes on the back. One for the nipple to fit in so the camera/videocamera doesn't rotate by itself.

it's for video cameras.

edit: looks like i was beaten to the punch

sweeeet, thanks...does that mean I can remove it? (so it doesn't scratch up my cameras?

LowriderS10 wrote in post #9947200
sweeeet, thanks...does that mean I can remove it? (so it doesn't scratch up my cameras?

yup

w00t...mini project for tonight hahaha

thanks y'all

can't you just put a piece of tape there to keep the nipple down?

My P&S camera has an extra hole for that nipple, my video camera doesn't. Every P&S I've owned had that hole.

Of course the irony is that the larger camera bodies are the ones that NEED that hole, and don't have it

tommibear202 wrote in post #9949655
can't you just put a piece of tape there to keep the nipple down?

I could and I have thought of that, but it's got quite a bit of pressure behind it, so I'd have to put a lot of tape on it...it would look stupid and would most likely interfere with the surface where the plate meets with the tripod...if it serves no purpose I might as well just take it off completely

i never knew what that was for. will be taking it off very soon.

Huh, I have never seen that on any of my tripod plates...

Depends in part on the head you get it with. I think I have that on one of my RC2 release plates, the one that came with the pan-tilt head which is more suitable for a video recorder. On the Manfrotto plates it unscrews from the bottom or (later ones, I understand) can be driven out from the top. Most of the RC2 plates I've seen have at least the holes for these alignment pins - 2 of them, one if the camera's mounted length-wise to the plate and a second opening if you mount the camera across the short dimension of the plate.

I took mine off, def easier without it.