500 f4.5 L and a sidekick?

It has not arrived yet but when it does I would like to be able to use the lens with my benro sidekick style setup but wonder if the lens foot can take the strain?
I ask as a friends 500 f4 foot broke off and the canon rep told him it was designed purely for use in the vertical not the horizontal. Carrying it with the foot was also a no-no (which is exactly how I carry the 300 2.8)....

Never had any trouble with my 500 F4 on a Wimberly Sidekick or in carrying it by the lens foot. Done it for years. Not sure about the Benro??

Never heard about foot breaking on the 500mm f4 with sidekick. The f4.5 is much lighter.

Cheers guys, I am a sucker for carrying things the easy way.

Benro is a similar design to the sidekick but Chinese (read: cheaply built). Does the job though.

I shoot with the 500mm f/4L IS on a sidekick all the time, and if it broke, and a Canon REP told me that line of BS, I'd have taken ample time to explain to him that 8 pounds is always 8 pounds,. and that his head was firmly up his rear for taking such time and effort to make things up on the fly as opposed to taking that same time and effort to actually service and support a customer with a $6K lens with a broken $4.00 part...


You should be fine, I hope that story is simply not true.

That casting should be made with at least 4x rating redundancy, ie: the lens is about 8 pounds, the foot I am sure is designed to handle 32 or more before breaking...

It is a cast part, a broken foot simply means a bad casting.

CyberDyneSystems wrote in post #10799884
I shoot with the 500mm f/4L IS on a sidekick all the time, and if it broke, and a Canon REP told me that line of BS, I'd have taken ample time to explain to him that 8 pounds is always 8 pounds,. and that his head was firmly up his rear for taking such time and effort to make things up on the fly as opposed to taking that same time and effort to actually service and support a customer with a $6K lens with a broken $4.00 part...


You should be fine, I hope that story is simply not true.

That casting should be made with at least 4x rating redundancy, ie: the lens is about 8 pounds, the foot I am sure is designed to handle 32 or more before breaking...

It is a cast part, a broken foot simply means a bad casting.

Is true I am affraid, but more to do with the pressure coming from the side than the top, the screws couldnt hold and in failing helped trast the mount. Canon did of course fix it but were not happy about it, despite being about 2 weeks old when it broke. Anyway, I wont let it stop me.

Cheers for the confirmation.

CyberDyneSystems wrote in post #10799884
I shoot with the 500mm f/4L IS on a sidekick all the time, and if it broke, and a Canon REP told me that line of BS, I'd have taken ample time to explain to him that 8 pounds is always 8 pounds,.

That is not entirely true. You have to take the torque into considerations.

You can lift a 8 pound lens off the ground easily for a lenghty period of time, but could you do the same holding it horizontally ?

Neilyb wrote in post #10801315
Is true I am affraid, but more to do with the pressure coming from the side than the top, the screws couldnt hold and in failing helped trast the mount. Canon did of course fix it but were not happy about it, despite being about 2 weeks old when it broke. Anyway, I wont let it stop me.

Cheers for the confirmation.

Wait, when you talk about breaking off, were you talking about the quick release plate breaking off from teh lens mount, or the Canon lens mount itself broke off ?

The lens mount, where it is screwed/bolted to the lens.

Large load of BS from that Canon rep... I've been shooting with a 500/4 on a Wimberely Sidekick for nearly 10 years. No problems. If someone's lens foot actually broke doing that, especially on a two week old lens, there was a manufacturing fault and the Canon rep was just trying to avoid fixing it under warranty.

Canon were not happy, said he must have dropped it but could not find any other marks on the lens and in the end the CPS rep sorted it for him. Another good reason to join if you can, they help.

Just wish mine would arrive quicker but then it is raining.