All I can add by way of explanation is that the lens is f2.8 throughout its range and it's very end-heavy. I have to use an L-plate on the camera and the ballhead definitely doesn't like it.
peter_n wrote:
I'm not sure of the weight, but it's Nikon's 17-55 DX lens that I use on a Fuji S5. There's no collar or foot for the lens so I have to use the camera L-plate. When you have the friction set correctly for the combo on the Q3T, if you go off center by >=25° the ballhead starts to bind. It's the ballhead, I have two Q3T heads and they behave identically.
It's odd that you experience that with both of your heads. I have the Markins Q3 Traveler too, and I can't replicate that behaviour even if I set the friction to a very high level. I bought mine in November 2011, directly from Korea. Maybe both of yours came from a batch with slight roundness or coating problems?
sjms wrote:
on a BH30 i can hang more weight then that.
Does the BH-30 have variable friction? If I loosen the friction everything's hunky-dory. Also it's not the weight per se, it's where the weight is on the lens - at the end of it.
S Dilworth wrote:
It's odd that you experience that with both of your heads. I have the Markins Q3 Traveler too, and I can't replicate that behaviour even if I set the friction to a very high level. I bought mine in November 2011, directly from Korea. Maybe both of yours came from a batch with slight roundness or coating problems?
Interesting idea, but I bought the first one directly from Markins in Canada, and the second one about a year later from an eBay dealer located in S. Korea.
You are unable to replicate this with a Nikkor 17-55/2.8 DX with the rig clamped using an L-plate on the camera?
Just put an order in for the L-plate. It's two weeks back-ordered. I am scheduled to shoot star trails this weekend. Has anyone tried to shoe horn their old RRS base plate from the ID IV or 1 Ds III? I'm just a bit scared of stripping the hole in the 1Dx.
voltaire wrote:
Just put an order in for the L-plate. It's two weeks back-ordered. I am scheduled to shoot star trails this weekend. Has anyone tried to shoe horn their old RRS base plate from the ID IV or 1 Ds III? I'm just a bit scared of stripping the hole in the 1Dx.
Thanks in advance.
There was a thread where someone did it. He wrote that it didn't work. He couldn't get it to fit properly. The difference in size is rather big between the new camera and those older
peter_n wrote:
You are unable to replicate this with a Nikkor 17-55/2.8 DX with the rig clamped using an L-plate on the camera?
I don't have that lens, so I used an 80-200 mm f/2.8, which I guess is even heavier and more front-heavy (when supported from the camera; obviously I would normally use the lens' tripod collar, but for this test I didn't). I also simulated a variety of other loads with manual pressure on the mounted camera, adjusting the friction setting accordingly. Unless the problem occurs within a very narrow range of forces, specific to the exact weight and balance of the 17-55 mm f/2.8 on a camera with an L-plate, I think I covered it.
I tried various clamping forces and pan-lock settings too, in case those things might somehow affect the sphericity of the ball or the shape of the bell casting.
I'm fairly sensitive to subtle mechanical effects, but I only noticed some very slight – and seemingly random – variations in resistance to movement of the ball, throughout its entire range of motion. In fact, I was again impressed by the little Markins Q3 Traveler: it's exceptionally smooth for a head of its size, and it punches above its weight class. The engineering, in mine at least, is first class.
Why are you ditching your SLR gear, peter_n?
I wonder if RRS will bring this new L-plate design to Nikon cameras soon.
peter_n wrote:
Does the BH-30 have variable friction? If I loosen the friction everything's hunky-dory. Also it's not the weight per se, it's where the weight is on the lens - at the end of it.
Interesting idea, but I bought the first one directly from Markins in Canada, and the second one about a year later from an eBay dealer located in S. Korea.
You are unable to replicate this with a Nikkor 17-55/2.8 DX with the rig clamped using an L-plate on the camera?
the friction capability is irrelevent. the BH30 doesn't have it the BH40 does. on the 40 it is a separate independent adjustment to the locking knob assy. on either one the final locking is done by the large knob independently.
friction/drag knobs can give a false sense of the locking point of a ballhead. especially on the integrated AS type of knob assy vs the separate ones and will vary with the individual user.
S Dilworth wrote:
Why are you ditching your SLR gear, peter_n?
I'm a B&W film shooter using 35mm rangefinder cameras and only use color for family snaps and suchlike. The dSLR and huge lenses are way too big and awkward for me but finally there's a little mirrorless camera that's really easy to focus all my Leica prime lenses on. I don't really feel like paying $8K for a Leica M9 just to take snaps of my kids.
I'd like to respond to comments on my Q3T issue but I think we've strayed OT for long enough; my apologies to the OP.
Basically, the L bracket for the 1D4 will not work unless you file the hole to get the screw location right, and then carefully shim the gap between the camera and the bracket to make it all fit snug. And doing the shimming wrong is the fastest and easiest way to pull the whole threaded part out of the bottom of your brand new 1DX, so do not do it. You have been warned!
The general purpose plate that Really Right Stuff sells called the BP-CS will fit if you turn it around and have the lip reach to the front edge of the 1DX. That will be my solution until my L plate arrives. Any flat topped general purpose plate like the RRS MPR-73 will also work, but will not have an interlock with the body, so it has a chance of rotating while in use. If you can make use of any size MPR plate for something else like for on a lens collar, or you want to have a BP-CS around, you could get one sent by RRS fast, and use it as a bottom only plate on your 1DX until your real L plate gets here. All MPR plates and the BP-CS show in stock right now. Of course both of these solutions are bottom only, and not L brackets.
Any flat thing you put on the camera is very low risk for stripping or damaging the camera, because the flat surface comes in contact with the flat metal area on the bottom of the camera that surrounds the threads, and the screw thus is clamping metal to metal, and not pulling on the whole bottom of the camera. When you do something like a contoured L plate, and it is not fit just right, you can possibly pull the threads and fitting all out of the camera using the tremendous force the screw can develop.
When I went to fit the BP-CS general purpose camera plate on to my 1DX, I noticed that the front curved up part of the camera base is not straight and flat across the front, but has a gentle curve to it. This is likely related to making that area a slightly more comfortable grip when you use the secondary grip. The reason may also be to try to make the camera "look" a little sleeker and a little less boxy, but that is a minor effect. When you put a straight edge across the front of the camera base, there is about a 1.5 mm gap at each end over the 4 inch length that has the rubberized surface on it.
Because of this curve, which the 1D4 did not have, there is no way anyone should consider trying an old L 1D4 bracket on the 1DX, because the curved edges of the bracket are never going to fit this compound curved surface properly no matter how you shim the gap. I am assuming that Really Right Stuff caught this issue, and did the extra machining process to make the bracket fit the compound curve "just right". I will check out the fit of my bracket when it comes, but that will be a couple of weeks or so. And perhaps this is another reason the 1DX bracket from RRS is so expensive.
They have the L-plate in stock in this Swedish shop http://webshop.goecker.se/web/guest
They will send it to me tomorrow so I will probably have it on Friday. They also have the 1DX in stock.
It's rather strange that the price is 1519 Swedish kronor. http://webshop.goecker.se/product/REALLY-B1DXL
That's $ 218 at todays exchange rate
Lars Johnsson wrote:
I just ordered the L-plate. They sell RRS equipment in many shops in the Netherlands and Sweden for about the same prices as the RRS online shop
And you don't pay for RRS's extraordinarily high shipping, almost criminal. 3oz plate that cost $30 and they want $40 shipping.
Have they improved at all as I stopped buying their stuff for this reason?
netexpress wrote:
I ordered mine directly from RRS on Tuesday, May 29th and it hasn't shipped yet. I wonder how they got them so early in Sweden. You are lucky Lars
There's no import customs duty on still camera equipment shipped into the US according to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States page 90-something. Video equipment - there's duty which is a fixed percentage by equipment type, still equipment - no duty. So you'd pay shipping only.
