Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/07/30

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Subject: Re: Long lens support (was: Re: [Leica] WAS: Focusing a 280 F2.8??? etc.)
From: CapsTeeth@aol.com
Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2000 13:49:27 EDT

In a message dated 7/30/00 1:33:43 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
telyt560@cswebmail.com writes:

<< Among the others are hand-held photos with long lenses at shutter speeds 
as slow as 1/60 sec., using a shoulder stock to damp the higher-frequency 
vibrations with my body mass.  Many of these hand-held photos are of fleeting 
moments where IMHO a camera & lens stuck on a tripod would be unworkably 
cumbersome and too unresponsive to have made the photo. >>

The issue of a tripod's inconvenience is not unnoted by wildlife 
photographers, and I'm sure many shots are missed as a result.  Handholding 
long lenses even with a shoulder stock has its practical limitations.  The 
400/2.8's and 600/4's used by a lot of career wildlife pros are 
next-to-impossible for anyone but a bodybuilder to hold steady with shoulder 
stocks.  I've handheld my 300/2.8 (the longest I currently own, not counting 
my Viso 400/6.8 and 500 Mirror lens) with 2X when the shot looked so good 
that it was worth a try.  At 8 fps the odds are better than even that a sharp 
frame will result.   I haven't tried out one of the new Canon IS teles yet, 
but I am curious.

Doc