35mm camera weight for hand held shots

David A. Goldfarb

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benjiboy said:
I agree David, but as I'm sure you know our New Canon F1's with the AE motor drive FN (which takes 12AA batteries) and with only the 50mm f1.4 lens it weighs 5 lb I can hold it still but not for long
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I originally had the Ni-Cd pack, but switched to the 12xAA battery pack when the Ni-Cd cells wouldn't hold a charge any more, and I didn't want to deal with re-celling it. The battery pack was actually new old stock from the infamous Cambridge Camera in New York, sometime in the 1990s.
 

benjiboy

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Ffords Photographic in the U.K fairly recently had some brand new boxed old stock Canon New F1 cameras and FD lenses, they were selling them at a reasonable price about the same as beat up ones go for on ebay, I bought a couple of lenses that I'm very happy with and they are indeed new.
 

David A. Goldfarb

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Nice find!
 

lxdude

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Wow!
 

benjiboy

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lxdude said:
Wow!
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I wonder where they've been since the early 1980's, there were 3 Canon F1N AE bodies which were 1 ordinary one, 1pin register one and one LA 1984 Olympic one plus about 20 new FD lenses of various focal lengths, needless to say they sold almost immediately a few of which they still have in stock marked U. N .http://www.ffords.co.uk/category/Lenses/Canon/FD_Fitting I can confirm from personal experience these are all brand new boxed stock complete with all the packing and documentation in the boxes, when I received the the two lenses I bought it was wierd I used to sell these lenses in my shop when they were current it was like going through a time warp.
 
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I.G.I.

For 35mm Pentax MX exemplify the optimal size and weight for me: 500gr, 14 x 8 x 6 cm. On the other hand, once I held Mamiya 7 and was seduced on the spot - though not exactly heavy it was large-ish yet strangely well fitting in my hand, all my fingers fell instantly on the right places; a magnificent beast!
 

analoguey

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Havent really used heavy lenses (does trying to shoot a 600mm CanNon lens hand-held on a 20D count?), but with the lenses I have used - normal/short-teles/teles (till 200mm) - I prefer the Nikon f5. I think I would prefer pretty much any camera that I can grip with my whole palm and not with just half or 3/4ths of my palm. (one reason I prefer carrying my cameras by gripping the lenses than the body)

Havent used the older motor-drives, wouldnt know if I would liked them.
But definitely f5 or so would be pleasing.
 
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benjiboy

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As I wrote I do prefer heavy cameras, but having said that there is obviously a limit when the weight is so great that you can no longer hold it in your hands for any length of time.
 

ME Super

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Was out-of-state over the weekend or I would've seen and responded sooner. Sorry to hear that, Ralph. Dad tore his rotator cuff about a year ago. Dad being Dad, he was too stubborn to go to the doctor until it was too late, and there's not much they can do for it since he waited so long other than physical therapy, which does help.

While y'all seem to be getting older, I think I've been aging backwards in some respects I had a life-threatening birth defect repaired at age 3, and another birth defect (too many digits on my left hand) at age 4. At age 44, I'm riding the bike farther than I ever have, and I've been playing piano since age 5 or so. Just don't ask me to reach more than an octave with my left hand - it's impossible, my thumb-pinkie distance on my left hand maxes out at an octave. Right-hand an octave + 1 is doable, octave + 2 is a stretch. Oh and my weekend trip was a 10-mile canoe trip. I'm a wee bit sore today - not used to using the upper body like that! So glad it wasn't any longer.

Oh, and with regards to the real topic at hand (no pun intended), camera weight, I find I prefer the weight of a 35mm SLR to the weight of a compact. The additional weight seems to help me hold it steady better. I think 1-2 pounds (500g-1kg for you metric types) is a decent weight for a camera+lens.
 

markbarendt

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ME Super said:
and another birth defect (too many digits on my left hand)
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So I'd bet you got ribbed a bit when the Princess Bride movie came out.
 

ME Super

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No, not really.
 

markbarendt

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You have good friends.
 

darinwc

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I like my cameras with a bit of heft to them. But I am finding that I pefer the lightweight of plastic for the telephoto zoom lenses.
I've had a couple of Nikon F's and never really was impressed because I thought they were too large. These had the photomic prism. But then I had a F with the plain prism and I really liked that. Still kicking myself for selling it.

My main system is an olympus OM2 with a number of lenses. I do have smaller hands for a guy, but I do not feel like the larger cmaeras -Nikon F, Canon F1, Minolta SRT, etc are too big. They feel good in the hands, the extra grip makes it easy to hold them. You really dont notice any extra weight in your hands.

One thing I dont do though is wear a camera around my neck. That may make a difference. I prefer a shoulder bag.
 

Mick Fagan

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I prefer my F3 with MD4 drive attached and lenses up to 135mm, the 2.8 180 I have is alright, but somehow, it doesn't feel right compared to all the other smaller (and lighter) lenses.

I have just spent 3 months in Germany and Spain walking around virtually every day with my bog standard F3 with a 28/50/135 group of lenses. I have a home made camera strap made out of 25mm webbing, about 1.5 metres long, but folded to an appropriate length, that is always slung over my head and under my left arm always with one of those lenses attached, generally the 28mm. I can hand hold down to 1/15th these days and feel completely at ease as with the weight of that camera and any of those lenses, it's rock steady (within reason that is).

Upon arriving home I went out a couple of days later with the MD4 drive attached, this transformed the camera and as it was the middle of winter in Australia with dreary weather, I was shooting down to 1/8th with the 28mm lens easier than with the naked camera. I think a combination of weight, ergonomics and the wonderful shutter button arrangement on the drive body, made the difference.

I swapped with a professional sports photographer my F3 with MD4 drive for an hour or so for a Canon new F1N ( think it was that) and it's drive at the 1984 Olympic weight lifting trials in Melbourne, first time I had used one of them. He was offered a fast 300 lens for the trial but didn't have a Nikon body, so he borrowed mine. At the completion of the main trial, and because there were international judges present, there was a small Australian group that tried to do an Australian lifting record that would be recognised internationally. I borrowed back my F3 with the fast 300 and monopod and was able to get some extremely sharp pictures at 1/15th, I put the sharpness down to two things, the lens and monopod, plus the mass of the camera/drive combination.

Mick.
 

Peltigera

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Are they still under guarantee?
 

Newt_on_Swings

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I actually lean toward a lighter camera. It's hard to notice a heavy camera until a long trip with one, or when you switch to a lighter system. When I was shooting with nikon f3s they didn't feel that heavy even with big nikkors on them. Then I went over to olympus for the size and lenses, but I noticed they were lighter too and it was hard to go back to carrying that heavy nikon setup again.
 

benjiboy

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Peltigera said:
Are they still under guarantee?
Click to expand...
As far as I know Ffords give at least 6 months guarantee with all their sales except "as is", I don't know in the case of new old stock, I suggest you call or email them and ask.
 

dynachrome

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I came back from a vacation yesterday. I brought two cameras, a very heavy pne and a light one. The heavy one was a Mamiya M645 1000S with a PD-S finder and the right hand motor winder. The light one was a Minolta X-700. I can hold both cameras in a steady way for landscape format but the light camera is harder for me to hold steady for vertical shooting. This is especially true with anything longer than a 135. I have to compensate by using a higher shutter speed. I seem to do better with a longer lens with a heavier 35mm camera like a Canon F-1 when shooting vertically. Some years ago I was shooting the top of the lighthouse at Cape May (hand held) with an F-1 with a 200/2.8 lens and a 2X teleconverter, taking a few verticals. I decided to shoot some at 1/2000. I only found out later that the shutter brake on that body needed repair. The ones I took at 1/1000 were fine.
 

johnha

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I preferred my Pentax Super-A with the Motordrive-A attached, it wasn't really the weight (8x AA batteries) but it felt better in my hand (especially with longer lenses). For me the form/feel of the camera is more important than the weight, I prefer my Pentax 6x7 without the left hand wooden grip, especially for verticals.
 

removed account4

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i never noticed a difference in weight ...
i use light ones as well as heavy ones
and sometimes hand hold for a few seconds ...
i usually brace myself, lean against something,
or don't drink too much coffee ahead of time ...
 

Gunfleet

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I had a friend with 6 toes as a youth. It's much more common than people think.
 
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