How tight?

[Charliedelta]

I was wondering, when I screw in the release plate of my tripod into my camera, how tight can I go? I go until the end and then I apply a little more force. I need to apply force to unscrew it. Is it too much? Would it cause damage to the camera?

the reason I'm doing it is because I had my heavy lens on once, set up a vertical shot and the camera started to move under the weight.

 

[astroNikon]

what kind of tripod/head are you using ?
and what camera / lens combos?

tripods normally have weight limits to them.
The platform/release /head that you attach it to also varies on the load it can support.

My big Slik Professional can take my 2000mm telescope plus my camera w/grip with no problem whatsoever. I would never try that combo on my much lighter Velbon, or even my medium duty Slik 500DX tripod.

So check online for the weight limits of your tripod/head.
Tightening should be finger tight. Sometimes they allow you to use a screw driver too tighten too but I wouldn't want to over tighten it.

 

[tirediron]

You can very definitely go too tight. As a general rule, I find that using two fingers normally gets it tight enough, especially if it has a rubber pad on the plate.

 

[SCraig]

the reason I'm doing it is because I had my heavy lens on once, set up a vertical shot and the camera started to move under the weight.

If your "Heavy" lens has a tripod ring with a tripod shoe you should be able to rotate the lens and camera in the tripod ring rather than rotating the tripod head.