• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Handholding lenses (1 Viewer)

Keith Reeder

Keith Reeder

Watch the birdie...
Evenin' all.

I found this tonight.

See picture no. 3?

Well I've never seen that trick, and so I've just tried it out.

It really works. It's miles steadier than my usual handholding technique, which isn't too bad to start with.

I'll have a proper "in the field" crack at it tomorrow, but I thought it was worth sharing now, because it's very good.
 
Hi Adey,

yeah, it's not something to do all day long, but as you say for a few shots at a time it really seems to be effective (if a bit daft-looking!)
 
different one keith....
mmmmmm. dont see how you can brace yourself for this.(left or right arm in awkward position).but another take so to speak..
look forward to seeing how it works out for you..
 
Definitely looks interesting, Keith. Will have to try it.
Thanks,
Lisa
 
It's funny I kind of stumbled on #3 on accident one day. instead of grabbing my elbow I tuck my left hand into my crossed arm. It does work, but I felt it was not much better then the old fashion elbows against the chest.
 
Last edited:
I tried the locked arm position today and reckon that it does work for me although it is a bit strange to get use to.
 
It works OK for me. Here's a 100% crop of a shot of a distant stonechat taken with the 100-400mm and 1.4x tc. No processing applied other than adobe camera raw defaults. I'm not saying they were all keepers but probably more keepers this way than with my usual elbow into chest technique.

Thanks for the tip Keith. :t:
 

Attachments

  • stonechat_crop.jpg
    stonechat_crop.jpg
    112.3 KB · Views: 201
Yep, it works for me too - but it doesn't feel terribly natural to start with.

Steve,

I think it works because it puts the arm into a very strong, rigid position: when you flex your arm like that (without a camera) your biceps and shoulder muscle are working at their best, and lock pretty solid.
 
Wanted to see how this would work for me. Didn't get to go birding today, so I went outside for a little while with my 20D and 100-400 IS. Here are two shots. The hummer is heavily cropped, and I was probably 15 - 20 feet away. Camera settings for hummer were 1/500 F5.6 ISO 100.The finch has only been resized for the net, settings were 1/400 F8 ISO 100. Neither shot was sharpened. Actually think it worked quite well.
 

Attachments

  • wrist hold 1.jpg
    wrist hold 1.jpg
    75.9 KB · Views: 136
  • wrist hold 2.jpg
    wrist hold 2.jpg
    80.8 KB · Views: 147
When I was shooting with the Bigma, the position that worked best for me was with the left hand holding the tripod mount where the left elbow was locked on my chest. I don't know how many shots my shoulder muscles will last in "Position 3" even though it looks good in terms of providing three point support to the lens.
 
Haven't tried position 3 in anger but in the privacy of my own bedroom(!) the most natural/comfortable pose was achieved when I looked through the viewfinder with my left eye. As with your comments Keith and others, it felt strange but I'll give it a go.

Thanks

Adrian
 
Hmm, I hadn't even thought about how it could affect which eye would be comfortable. I am left eye dominant so didn't feel any different.
 
Keith Reeder said:
See picture no. 3?
Click to expand...
Like Rob, I think it'll be a bit tough with a 500 (even on a 30d). However, I'll certainly be trying it where I have a rest for the left elbow and no pad.

Good job we have AF, but it won't allow tweaking with the full-time MF.

And for those of you with zooms and superb field-craft who need to zoom out .... ;-)

Mike.
 
Thanks for sharing Keith.
I tried it yesterday, and it certainly works fine in some conditions. I.e. when you have time to get you self into position and the subject isn't moving too much. But it disables FTM which is pretty important to me, and it's not that useful for flight shots.

Thomas
 
tkanks Keith, thats just the sort of thing that has to be worth looking into.

having been hospitalised a couple weeks after buying a new (400D) camera in the summer and not able to get out & about since then, i now know less about it than when i first got it out of the box ! - hopefully though the plan is for some use during the winter evenings up horsey with the cranes and harriers etc,

so yep, cheers for the tip.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 17 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Similar threads

C
NL 12x42 Optimisation
Replies
12
Views
2K
hopster
hopster
N
nighttime bird call - ID request - location northern netherlands
Replies
8
Views
785
RichieTwitchy
RichieTwitchy
M
Joining for my grandson
Replies
5
Views
552
quincy88
Q
MartinDCZ
Vanguard Endeavor ED IV 10x42 is a disappointment
Replies
4
Views
1K
Chris Pringle
C
hookem2010
Birding Round Rock, TX
Replies
1
Views
326
MKinHK
MKinHK

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top