I noticed my new tele zoom had a little wobble at the lens collar. Enough so that I thought longer exposures in wind would probably suffer loss of sharpness. I thought about several designs I could make myself, given some aluminum and equipment. I thought back to when I read one of John Shaw's photography books in which he described making a brace for his Nikkor 300mm, and other articles where people braced their telephotos, sometimes with 2 tripods. Dual tripods work only if you are focused solely on a single spot, such as a bird's nest. If you need to move around, forget it. So the single brace obviously has more general appeal.
As I gave each of my ideas more thought, I remembered Hejnar photo store having some interesting contraptions, so I headed over there and found not only several parts I could use, but a telephoto support specific to my lens. After a little thought, mulling over my options, and a conversation with Mr. Hejnar, I bought one.
It arrived quickly, much faster than I expected... just a couple of days.
Inside were a few parts: The main foot (a 4" long Arca-Swiss style base), a small clamp to fit on the end, tools, an anti-rotation pin, and a roller/support. Everything is precision-made and obviously of high quality with attention to detail.
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| The parts (it included more hex wrenches) |
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| The entire Hejnar support system |
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| Anti-Twist flange and safety stop |
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| In use |
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| Another angle |
The bottom line is, it works, and works better than I expected. It eliminated the wobble at the lens collar.
The magic comes from tightening the roller in the clamp up against the lens; this puts pressure on the front of the lens, a second point of contact that eliminates the wobble. The fact that it has rubber lined wheels means you can focus manually and rotate to vertical on a tripod without any trouble, without scratching the lens barrel.
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| Clamp holding the support tightly against the lens |
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| Support removed |
Beyond serving its main purpose as a brace, it is long enough that it makes a great handle for carrying the lens; much nicer than a standard Arca-Swiss plate.
The length means you can balance your camera and lens more easily on your tripod.
Two potential downsides exist, only one of which I noticed in real use:
- It adds some bulk, and takes up a little more space in the bag (not a problem for me).
- To reverse the lens hood, I have to remove the roller. If you can store the lens hood in shooting position at all times, this isn't a problem.
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| Hood in reversed position requires removing the support/roller. |
It works, it is well-made, and I am a happy customer. I won't hesitate to buy any other parts I need from Hejnar. His body and lens plates are less expensive than some other brands too.
If you need something like this, but he hasn't made a specific brace kit for your lens, he has many parts you can put together yourself. And Mr. Hejnar is friendly, helpful, and quick to respond to questions... so if you have doubts, just ask him for help.
A custom variation I considered was this: keep my standard lens plate on the lens collar, add a clamp to a Hejnar bar to connect to the plate, then add a small 1" clamp to the other end of the bar and use a taller support/roller. This would have meant the lens itself would store more compactly, but I'd have to remove the support every time I put it away, and have to dedicate another spot in the bag for the support.
