Good point David. It’s a long lens but pretty light. Worse is there is no tripod collar. On a shoot a few months ago I resorted to hiding my tripod behind a cement wall to shield the wind. It helped a little bit though I ultimately took the camera off the tripod and just manually braced it on the wall.
Is it possible to add a tripod collar or they have to be built into the lens?
It looks like you can get one, which would help considerably.
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Excellent, I’ll give this a try.
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Another trick is to actually drape some weight over the camera/lens, being careful not to change settings. A beanbag or just a coat or vest with some gear in the pockets to add weight can help.
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Having nothing to do with 35mm or digital, long ago we were using a model of MF body that emerged to have weaknesses around the lens mount. It would eventually “spring” out of shape and block the mirror, rendering the body useless. Got a whole box of those infernal things still hanging around, made obsolete when the manufacturer discontinued it in favor of a new design and stopped accepting warranty claims. Grrrr…
Only reason I point it out, check back through your manufacturer’s guidance about lenses and bodies to see if there are any precautions regarding specific combos. Experience has taught me to be especially cautious about heavy lenses without tripod collars.
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Some really good points have been brought out. I am coming in late on this conversation, but I didn’t see anything mention by Richard Wong (originator), nor anyone else, if the lens hood is attached or not. I know I have found that it is like a sail in the wind, so unless I have the sun straight into the lens for a particular shot on a windy day, I leave the lens hood off, and it really makes a difference.
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That is an interesting question Shirley. Yes, the lens hood was on. Cheap plastic thing - very lightweight. I hadn’t thought of testing with and without but will now.
Yeah, it doesn’t matter how heavy the lens hood is, it is the fact that the wind can catch into it like a sail, and cause some movement. Hopefully that will solve the problem altogether. That would be nice.
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Lots of great ideas voiced here. I live in the SF bay area and tried to get a pano on top of the hill behind Stanford where the “Dish” is. It was very windy and even with my loaded backpack hung from my CF Gitzo and a RRS ball head, the tripod almost blew over once. My shots were no good. I have seen an example where Mike Oria was shooting fireworks across the bay once with a long lens and he had the whole thing packed well with weighted bags - the shots were exquisite. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do!
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