Enough Lens Support??????

W

Woody Sanford

Member
So, I'm going through my "Macro" phase. Running a Fotodiox A-E mount adapter, and set of macro rings with a Minolta 75-300 mm "Beer can" lens. Seemed to me I was getting on the verge of needing lens support so I cut a piece of 1" x 1/4" aluminum and drilled it so I can fit both 1/4 x 20 to the rear mount and fit the 1/4 x 20 to the Fotodiox A-E mount adapter foot. I had to shift the tripod mount to the side 1/4 x 20 as I can't find my 3/8" mount screw for that plate right now. I don't have any experience with anything heavier than the 18-200 mm kit lens being mounted on the camera. This lens and adapters actually seem a tad lighter than the kit lens but it is much longer. Thought I would ask if anyone had any warnings about setting up in such a way.






I bought these two lenses (75-300 mm and 35-70 mm) back in the early 90's with a Minolta MAXXUM for my wife. I got the A-E adapter for my VG-10 before the FS-100 came out. On a whim I got the 15 dollar extension tubes just to try them with the lenses and it's to much fun. I've mostly been filming with the 35-70 for the last few days but tried the 75-300 mm last night and it is awesome. I can focus a 1/4" tall subject and it will fill the 1080 hight of the screen with the 35-70 but the subject is about an inch from the lens. I can focus a 5/8" subject and fill the 1080 hight on the 75-300 and its about 1.5 ft away. I have a much wider DOF with the 75-300 and can focus on small things and fill the screen at about 5-6 ft away. So with the 75-300 mm I don't have to get so close and have more DOF to work with. It's a lot of fun. I kind of miss living in Alaska with everything being so big but now that I can just make everything in NC bigger it takes the edge off. :happy:
 
Okay, evidently this isn't a popular option for lens support but I'll post what I found. The macro rings are not tight. In the position they have to be for the foot of the adapter to be screwed down, there will be some play in the threads (slightly loose). I can turn them slightly back and forth and adding the lens doesn't seem to change how easy it is to turn them. So at this point I'm going with that meaning the weight of the lens is not adding pressure to cause them to bind and with that said, it shouldn't stress the lens mount on the camera. If that changes I'll report back on not to do something like this. I did change the bolts on the bottom to SS allen head that are flush with the QD plate on the bottom and found a neoprene washer at Home Depot that shimmed between the foot and the bar perfectly as to not pull on the adapter or camera mounts.

I likely will go with a set of rails someday but I had the scrap for this and only had to buy a washer and it seems to be working just fine.
 
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