Hi All

Thought you might be interested in the lens support I have made for my
XL1s / 300mm Sigma.
It is made from 4mm alloy bar, 50mm wide and 338mm long (cost £2).
With this lens the mounting foot is exactly level with the tripod socket, if
using a lens with a lower mounting foot a spacer will need to be fitted to
the rear mounting.
I bolted a Manfrotto long plate to the bottom of the plate to mount to the
tripod.
All holes are drilled 5.1mm and threaded 1/4 X 20 tpi BSW, and the slot
is 100mm long and 4mm wide.

Right lads and lassies get out your hacksaw and drill and have a go.

See photographs in attached files

That looks like it will do the job well. Thanks for the heads up. Can I ask what you use the rig for? I'm guessing wildlife with that length. How do you find using it at that focal length?

Great stuff

Mat

Hi Mat,
Yes I use this setup for wildlife filming.

The only problems I have are FOCUS, very shallow depth of field at maximum zoom and following moving birds and animals can be difficult,in fact near impossible

The other problem is STABILITY, the tripod must be locked down whenever possible as any adjustment will cause camera shake.
Whenever the subject will allow I lock down, zoom in to maximum, focus, zoom back to required framing, press record and hope the subject stays in frame. Panning and zooming at 2160mm does not work due to the camera
moving even with the lightest touch.

When filming moving subjects I use the standard 16X lens, sometimes with
the 1.6 extender which allows the auto focus to work.

Hi Henry

Yeah I can imagine keeping things still at that range is tough going.

You say ... '1.6 extender which allows the auto focus to work' How do you find that extender and how do you mean 'for the autofocus to work'. The extender improves autofocus ??

Have you tried other lenses, what do you consider is a good workable range. I'm going to be gearing up for such things soon so this is usefull stuff? At the moment I'm looking at not going much above 200mm(maybe 300) that should still double the focal length of the stock lense.

Cheers
Mat

Oh and any sample footage available, I'd like to take a look?!

Hi Mat,

When using Canon XL lenses as supplied with the Canon XL1/ 1s /2 you have auto focus and if you fit a Canon XL 1.6 extender the auto focus will still work.
However when you fit a lens from a still camera with an EOS mount you will
need a Canon EF adaptor which fits between the lens and the camera, this
adaptor multiplies the focal length of the lens by 7.2 but will disable the
auto focus and the auto exposure.
If you look at my photographs the EF adaptor is the square white thing.

I will TRY to upload some film shots soon.

Ahh ok, I get you. Yeah I have an EF adapter on order and yeah I realise you lose the auto controls. Crazy you pay so much and actually lose functions, but hey I guess the gains from being able to change your lens functionality will be great. I'm starting at the macro end of things, hence my other post 50mm macro! But I indeed to get a longer lense as I enjoy shooting birds but have to rely on quiet approach at the moment instead :)

Cheers for now

Ahh ok, I get you. Yeah I have an EF adapter on order and yeah I realise you lose the auto controls. Crazy you pay so much and actually lose functions, but hey I guess the gains from being able to change your lens functionality will be great. I'm starting at the macro end of things, hence my other post 50mm macro! But I indeed to get a longer lense as I enjoy shooting birds but have to rely on quiet approach at the moment instead :)

Cheers for now

Matt, if you havn't already bought the EF adaptor a cheaper alternative is the optex mount converter - I use one to fit a 500mm Nikon lens to my xl2.

Regards
Andy

Hi Mat,
The other problem is STABILITY, the tripod must be locked down whenever possible as any adjustment will cause camera shake.
Whenever the subject will allow I lock down, zoom in to maximum, focus, zoom back to required framing, press record and hope the subject stays in frame. Panning and zooming at 2160mm does not work due to the camera
moving even with the lightest touch.


It's still 500mm, right? The camcorder is just recording a crop of the 35mm image circle. Even so, keeping a 500mm lens, or anything 300mm or more) steady requires a lot of technique for still photos, and I'd imagine it's even tougher with video as you can't be saved by an ultrafast shutter speed.

Hello Henry,

Nice setup. I just sent you a pm.

Thanks,
Vince

I use the Sima 100-300 APo with the Z7P, bought also the Manfrotto long plate, turned the lens brace around with the screw thread facing the camera. As the 2 screw holes are very much toward the front of the camera, I have no problem, bolting camera and lens to the plate, and, guess what, it is long enough even with the 1.4EX converter - but just. There would not be more than 1mm play.
Although not recommended by Lino (Manfrotto) I throw my tripod and camera over the shoulder to go bush and film wildlife. I've done that for 8 years (first with Canon XM2 and 2x Century adaptor), now with the Z7P. It would be too slow fishing the camera out of a bag on the back and mounting it, when action happens.
In case you are interested read on:
With the Canon XM2 (no adaptor, just the lens hood) I once stumbled and fell, as the rock under my feet crumbled, and the camera landed lens hood first very hard on the rock. I did not expect it to work again, but an immediate check revealed, everything was fine. Now this surprised me: instead of being crushed, the lens hood had only a small dent. The hood has the weight of thin plastic, if not less. Only later did I find out, that it was made of what must be a new very tough metal composition.
At that time I had read many reviews of that camera complaining of the plasticky feel to it. Technology surrounding fabrication materials is also constantly advancing, keeping the weight of cameras down, while stability goes up (to meet the wishes of consumers).