Proper way to hold a HUGE lens?

[CyberDyneSystems]

I now own a big telephoto.

Manuals and common knowledge indicate that when handholding such an arrangement,. you hold the lens,. not the body,. as the lens weighs much more,. this will put less stress on the mount.

Makes sense,.. but,.

How important is this?

I ask as I was just working with a "pro" photographer who had two bodies both with "L" lenses,.. one of which was HUGE! (I think the 100-400?)

He was working fast so he was hand holding both the whole time,. and,. both of them were around his neck via a strap.

So when he picked up the body with the smaller lens,. that big "L" was hanging from the body/mount while it all banged around on the end of the strap. (strap was attached to the camera not the lens)

So any ideas on how much danger there is with letting the big lenses hang from the body/mount when the camera is around your neck?

[Roger_Cavanagh]

PJ's develop bad habits because it's more important to them to get the picture than not damage equipment, so I would not use them as role models.

Remember hanging down the stress on the mount is not the same as when in shooting position. The lens mount are designed to withstand a certain amount of force, but when the lens is heavier than the camera the stress is obviously reduced by supporting the lens. That's why the 70-200 and above have collars for attaching to tripod mounts instead of using the camera base.

I am sure that the PJ you saw was still supporting the lens when he was actually shooting. Apart from anything else, it would be much harder to hold the set-up still from one end only.

Regards,

[tzrider]

Hi there,

My 300 4.0 and 100-400 hang on the
body with the strap attached to the camera.
This is no problem, I spend hours in the
woods and on racetracks and both lenses and
the body are not damaged by that.

However, I always hold my 300 2.8 in
my hands and it never hang on a strap
or even on the camera body. O do sometimes
walk around with the 300 2.8 attached to
a monopod.

If you look at the larger Sigma telezooms
they got a MUCH better tripod mount by
which you hold the lens with your whole
hand, the ones on the Canon lenses are too
small.

Regards,

Jeroen

[Longwatcher]

Having just this past weekend played with my 100-400 on the 10D, I can't see how you can take a picture without holding the lens. I did take some pictures with the camera mounted on the tripod, instead of the lens, out of convienence in changing lens, but what a pain, too much weight on the front. As to handheld, my hand is not strong enough to hold it by the body only for more then a few shots (you can forget about even the IS correcting for the camera shake in that case)

However, when carrying the lens around I just held the camera body, lens usually down and walked around. Probably less stress then with a strap, but it would not have bothered me to have it on a strap around my neck ,flopping loose as it were, while I walked around.

I would consider that normal use.
Now if I had any of the lenses which weigh over 5lbs, you can bet I would only carry it by the lens.

I am curious though, what you consider a big telephoto, because I don't consider my 100-400 huge, just a bit on the heavy side. Now if they were carrying a 500mm or larger, that would be a huge lens to me.

Just my opinions and experience.

[Dans_D60]

I found using the monopod, collapsed, makes a pretty nice handle for carrying my 10D. A typical two camera setup would include my D60 with a small zoom or wide angle with a neck strap. The 10D has the large L lens attached to a monopod. A light weight 4 position collapsible monopod made by Bogen really does the job for hauling around both cameras….Dan
http://www.pettusphoto.com

[robertwgross]

The other day, President Bush was visiting my home town. Naturally, I was out there by the police barricades with my longest lens on my D60. The lens is a Sigma 170-500mm zoom, and it is certainly not lightweight.

Unfortunately for me, the police barricades were far enough back that I could not get any clean photo. But then the presidential motorcade was leaving for the federal airport, so I drove those eight miles to maybe get a photo of Air Force One on takeoff.

I found a spot across the freeway from the airport, and just as I was getting out of my car with tripod, camera, and lens, I could hear the big 747 jet engines firing up full blast for takeoff. So, I had no time for tripods or adjustments or anything else. I simply flipped the D60 over to ISO 800, 1/1000 second, let the exposure go automatically, and then I aimed it all up at the sky. Whoosh! And I got the photo.

I still think maybe I should have purchased the optional trailer for that lens.

---Bob Gross---

[Slow]

CyberDyneSystems wrote:
I now own a big telephoto.

Manuals and common knowledge indicate that when handholding such an arrangement,. you hold the lens,. not the body,. as the lens weighs much more,. this will put less stress on the mount.

Makes sense,.. but,.

How important is this?

I ask as I was just working with a "pro" photographer who had two bodies both with "L" lenses,.. one of which was HUGE! (I think the 100-400?)

He was working fast so he was hand holding both the whole time,. and,. both of them were around his neck via a strap.


So when he picked up the body with the smaller lens,. that big "L" was hanging from the body/mount while it all banged around on the end of the strap. (strap was attached to the camera not the lens)

So any ideas on how much danger there is with letting the big lenses hang from the body/mount when the camera is around your neck?


If you looked closely at this "Pro" you may have seen that the camera strap was attached to the strap lugs on the lens instead of the body? I use several Optech straps as these are quickly released from the camera body and quickly mountable on the lens lugs (both my 300 f2.8 & 200 f1.8 have these lugs and are invaluable)! I do not however have these around my neck! I have one on each shoulder, both held on with epaulettes

[CyberDyneSystems]

Thanks all.

I asked for two reasons.

A new Sigma 50-500mm (and a new MONOPOD!!!!) and just the way the pro hung the bodies and big lenses around his neck.

You are all correct in assuming that he was holding the lens,. and body,. the proper way. It was jsut the strap hanging that surprised me.

As for the Monopod,. I definately mounted the Lens,. and although the weight was,.. well ,. astonishing,. I managed. This is a heavy lens.

As for the Lens?

So far I am really happy. Its hard to say,. as the two days I've had it it has been really grey rainy whether,. but that has not stopped me. Today I got some 500mmX1.6 10D cropfactor = 800mm pics of a cormarant trying to swallow a flounder about three times bigger than the birds head! :)

Pics came out really amazing for the distance and lack of light.