Lens Supports? - to eliminate/reduce long lens shake

C

Charles Lowthian

Well-known member
Hi all :)

My 500mm f8 Tamron, my 2x Teleconverter, my Letus Mini, my Letus Rails, and I are having some diffiiculties getting along.
Yes that's right, my question is about a 1000mm (one thousand) equivalent lens with evidently no opitical stabilization as it's on a manual adapter. Now don't laugh, this is just an extreme example of a problem i'm sure many are finding in regards to long lens shake.

At the moment I'm thinking a Lens Support will be the solution, or at least will reduce the ammount of shake, caused from a combination of adapter vibration, camera/lens handling, and general wind (of any strength - re: 1000mm).
I have no doubt a decent tripod head and legs come strongly into play as well. I'm most likely going to purchase the Miller DS20 (1514), so I cannot gauge how much of the shake will be eliminated via this, but I predict a support will still be required.

Now for the actual question and point of this post :)

What are users opinions on lens supports?

The three on my list at the moment are:

Geardear
Redrock
Cavision

But if there are any others, please post a link and opinions

Thanks :thumbsup:
 
Good luck with the f/8! You'll see plenty of grain at that point.

The 2x converter is also going to cut your light in half. IE you will need twice as much light using the converter than without it. You'll be shooting with an aperture equivalent to f/16 - will this cause even more grain?







I'm equally interested to see how this works out!
 
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My solution, doubles up as a adapter support too. padded with industry rubber to absorbs the vibration, and protect the lens or adapter.Galvanized to black.

When you tighten it, only the rubber is being compressed so that you have a firm grip, fully height adjustable.

I made this after owning the Cavision, Geardear, Brevis mount or lens support. You can try to buy those brand that you want, but they are not padded and will scratch the body of your adapter or lens. They can't absorb the vibrations too . I also have the Letus mount support for my letus Extreme. But I am still using this mount for both my Extreme and long lens. It is strong enough to even clamp the EXtreme up by itself. It is made out of steel.

This is also the solution for those who have the Letus economy and wish to mount it on rails and use it with matte box or follow focus unit. It clamps down from 73mm to 78mm. But The clamp unit can be changed to another clamp unit to clamp down a diameter of up to 100mm for those big ass lens.

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The geardear is nice designed (lens gear and raiser). I'd say go for it.
The "universal gear" (for SLR lenses) is shure spreading lately in many variations, doesn't it. (must have been a good idea).
In regards to "long lens shake", ...the use is in the purpose of itself. NG for steadicam work and not that "handy" on a crane (although experimented on both).
Follow distant action (from a solid tripod), pan and tilt (from a static point, geared if possible) will prevent most of the "shakes" from happening. No "need" to move a camera with a long lens. The distance traveled doesn't make any difference to image (unless on a dolly) for the 3D effect is allready there (long focal provides the blurred BG). My 2c.
Cheers,
Dan
 
trudd said:
The 2x converter is also going to cut your light in half. IE you will need twice as much light using the converter than without it. You'll be shooting with an aperture equivalent to f/16 - will this cause even more grain?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure about the extra grain. I wonder that, as less light (due to aperture/iris opening - smaller hole) may cause more of a shadow on the ground glass and hence enhance the GG grain. Is this what makes the grain 'darker' on smaller apertures?

DavidChia said:
My solution, doubles up as a adapter support too. padded with industry rubber to absorbs the vibration, and protect the lens or adapter.
Click to expand...

That's a very good point. I predict rubber will shock absorb some/all of the lens shake/vibrations, as the metal mounts might just support the lens weight.

Lenilenapi said:
I'm getting a Miller Arrow 25 . Don't know if the 20 will be heavy enough.
Click to expand...

Do you mean, the head itself will not be enough weight on the legs to provide stability? or the head's max weight isn't enough on the DS20?
If it's the first, maybe a light sandbag attached with a cable to the bottom of the head, to add extra weight on the legs = more stable?...instead of the quadrouple price increase of an arrow - although tested one yesterday, they do seem addictive :)

dan said:
No "need" to move a camera with a long lens. The distance traveled doesn't make any difference to image (unless on a dolly) for the 3D effect is allready there (long focal provides the blurred BG).
Click to expand...

Oh but I like following a subjects eye lashes during handheld (1000mm) :grin:


Thanks everyone for your thoughts and views :)
 
One of the reasons we switched to solid carbon fibre rails was to reduce flex at the end of the longer 45cm or 60cm rails systems. This is often overlooked, but the carbon is about 75% stiffer then 15mm stainless tubes. That extra stiffness is noticeable when using lenses in the 500 to 1000mm range. The largest lense I've ever affixed personally was a Canon EOS f4 500mm that we mounted up at the Canon Pro Expo in Toronto.
 
Dennis Wood said:
This is often overlooked, but the carbon is about 75% stiffer then 15mm stainless tubes. That extra stiffness is noticeable when using lenses in the 500 to 1000mm range.
Click to expand...

That's interesting. Wish I had some carbon fibres then :(


So has anyone used the Redrock or Cavision Long Lens Supports? Is the short distance (lens area) of their supports a disadvantage over the Geardear one?
 
I may be wrong about this, but i'll bet the single most important fact hre by far is the weight and stability of your tripod and head.
 
Lenilenapi said:
I may be wrong about this, but i'll bet the single most important fact hre by far is the weight and stability of your tripod and head.
Click to expand...

hehe you're quite right. as said I haven't yet tried it on a decent tripod (risers stick out at bottom blocking camera plate area), but even then I still predict the lens just 'hanging' at the end will need some support. But yes, the tripod definately is the key :)
 
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