Does anyone know of a Palm Rest or other Human/Lens interface that can slip onto a heavy tele lens for hand held use??

Maybe a glove with a padded palm?

TG

I think your best bet is to use something on the lens foot. I use longer than normal multi purpose rails from RSS on my large telephotos, and they work as a very functional way to rest the lens on a palm. They are also available as a handle to grab the lens in and out of a case, or to handle the entire lens and camera combination. And of course the lenses are always ready for mounting on a ball head or Wimberley. I find I must mix hand held and tripod useage very often, and thus need a rail on my larger lenses all the time. The RSS rails do have slightly rounded edges and well rounded ends that make for comfortable hand contact without gloves. The longer than normal rail gets the hand held support point a little further forward on the lens, which helps out for the best hand holding.

SoundHound wrote:
Does anyone know of a Palm Rest or other Human/Lens interface that can slip onto a heavy tele lens for hand held use??

You mean something like the block in front of the trigger guard here? The reason a free rifle needs a palm block is because the stock is designed for shooting kneeling and prone as well. You really want to be almost holding the barrel in the latter two. Then you need to jack up the height for standing. Don't know about Nikon, but on Canon, if you flip the handle down, it's about the right height for shooting horizontal in standing position.

Interestingly, back in the old days when free rifles were in wooden stocks, it's very common to have palm rest that can be adjusted every which way. Don't look like Anschutz is making those anymore. These days, they just put a fixed height block on their aluminum stocks.

Somebody else suggested a using shooting glove. I use this from time to time. It's very helpful to take the stress off your wrist if you try to shoot a long lens in standing position as if it's a free rifle. Not really all that necessary in a low position. But I much prefer monopod for standing. So it's a moot point.

Andy

Actually, a few years back there was a "palmer" especially made out of wood espcially for this purpose. I don't remember the manufacturer or distributor though . If you can slip something like that under the lens collar into the tripod mounting plate that would make the lens comfortable to hand hold...

I thought Leica had something?

Roland W.

I do indeed use a Wimberly plate and a padded shooting glove too but, somehow, after 1 Hr of continuous use, that gets old and so I am really after what accwai describes (and I remember from so long ago). A google of the rumored Leica palm rest yields no useful info.

Hmmm... maybe the Kirk Super Grip?

http://www.kirkphoto.com/supports.html#supergrip

Why not a BushHawk, just the handle...perfect for 300 2.8's

At your local hardware store get a replacement star handle (knob) with a threaded insert and attach it to the foot on the lens.

Thank you very much Mr. Monkey!!

SoundHound wrote:
Roland W.

I do indeed use a Wimberly plate and a padded shooting glove too but, somehow, after 1 Hr of continuous use, that gets old and so I am really after what accwai describes (and I remember from so long ago). [...]

Well, turns out Anschutz has moved the old palm rest to the AHG catalog:

http://ahg.anschuetz-sport.com/index.php5?menu=86&sprache=1&seite=83&produktID=411

I have it actually. It came with the original wooden stock on my 1413 before it was transferred onto a 1913 aluminum stock. Basically, the black block that attaches to the stock has a T shape on top and that slides into the rail under the stock. Then you tighten the two screws on the black block to lock it down. There is a screw on the silver cylinder to lock down the height and the four screws below the round plate allows you to tilt the flat plate in any direction.

If you really, really want to make this work on a big lens, I don't think it would be that difficult for a machine shop to make something that goes between the T on top of the palm rest and an RRS clamp, for example. The whole thing might be a little tall though.

But why do you want to hold the lens that way though? For static shots, monopod is much less stressful. For high up moving shots like bird in flight, the left hand should go way up front like the running target rifle shooters. In that case, the stress is mostly on the shoulder rather than the hand.

Andy

But why do you want to hold the lens that way though? For static shots, monopod is much less stressful. For high up moving shots like bird in flight, the left hand should go way up front like the running target rifle shooters. In that case, the stress is mostly on the shoulder rather than the hand.
No, for action (sports/BIF) you want the weight centered over the left hand as a pivot
controlled by the right hand. I can shoot for hours that way with little or no fatigue.

trenchmonkey wrote:
[...] for action (sports/BIF) you want the weight centered over the left hand as a pivot
controlled by the right hand.

What's the theory behind that?

From the perspective of running target rifle shooting, you want the finest degree of control over the where you're aiming at all times. Therefore, you want maximum distance between the two points of control. Also, running target shooters track the target by keeping the upper body structure fixed and rotating around the trunk only. If you pivot around the left hand, you have to keep the upper body flexible and you loose a lot of control.

That's just the theory of course. But with BIF at 700mm for example, one little slip and half the bird is already out of the frame. Maximum control is a very good thing, I believe.

I can shoot for hours that way with little or no fatigue.

What size of lens are we talking about? If you can do that with 500/4 and up, you must be like Hulk Hogan on Steroid

Andy

I often am in the front row capturing dancers (200mm F2.0) and I can't move my torso much while I must shoot upward so I can use a grip extending below my camera.
This, new, Anshultz Palm Rest appears to be a knuckle rest and very different from the rest of decades ago.

Yes I am a shooter (drafted into the US Army of the Vietnam eara '64-66) and find that shooting a firearm and a camera has a lot of carry over. I mostly "sight" one AF box on the face or eye and try to hold steady-even with IS. I use my "selective fire" camera for multiple shots in bursts (even in portraiture) to maximize my "hits."

AS USUAL this forum is helpful and productive so thanks to all. I will take advantage of more than one of these suggestions.

SoundHound wrote:
I often am in the front row capturing dancers (200mm F2.0) and I can't move my torso much while I must shoot upward so I can use a grip extending below my camera.

If you don't mind being somewhat vulgar, just put your left foot on the seat and stick your left leg up. Then put your left elbow on your left kneel and instant kneeling position. I do that at my daughter's school concerts all the time

This, new, Anshultz Palm Rest appears to be a knuckle rest and very different from the rest of decades ago.

It's actually part of it.

There is a slot along much of the length of the flat plate. In the original Anschutz palm rest, you slide a screw into the slot and fix a tiny black cylinder under the flat plate. Then you stick a riser block 4852/1 below the cylinder. You can see the block on the right column around the middle of this page:

http://jga.anschuetz-sport.com/index.php5?menu=121&sprache=1&zubehoerKatID=18

Then you have your old fashioned palm rest.

These days most people who are into 3 position shooting are also heavily into air rifle. Because the rules for the latter are much more restricted and you can't have all the contraptions sticking below the stock, people tend to use fist instead of palm on the left hand. And then they carry that hand position over to free rifle. I guess that's why full palm rest isn't very popular anymore.

Yes I am a shooter (drafted into the US Army of the Vietnam eara '64-66) and find that shooting a firearm and a camera has a lot of carry over.[...]

Yup. A lot of people spent their whole life researching how to shoot efficiently and much of that knowledge is applicable to long lens photography.

I shot ISSF air rifle for quite a few years before my daughter was born. Then I stopped because I had no time anymore. I shoot free rifle in standing position only as a training tool because recoil handling is so much more critical there.

People are often very surprised to learn that a person who would chase a fly around the house to catch it for releasing outside is also be heavily into guns

Andy

Could you use a monopod?

TG