Largest lens for camera on neck strap?

Had my 70-200 on a neck strap most of yesterday afternoon - not sure I'd want anything much bigger dangling around :naughty:
 
i use an Optech pro strap with a D300, battery grip, 80-200 f2.8 and SB-800 and i never find it a struggle, i find it more than comfortable i bearly notice its there.

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pearce_jj said:
As above really. Especially interested in the 70-200's at the mo :D
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I always have the strap diagonally across my chest bandolier style (put your arm and head through) with the top of the camera resting against my body, this is far more comfortable, and forces the longer lenses to lie against your side.

I can carry a 300mm f4 attached this way in comfort.
 
DoubleT said:
i use an Optech pro strap with a D300, battery grip, 80-200 f2.8 and SB-800 and i never find it a struggle, i find it more than comfortable i bearly notice its there.

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Using your right eye gives better hand access to controls, and less nose grease on the LCD. StoFen works better angled at 45 degs :woot:
 
Stofens don't do any good angled or not when you're outside :lol:

And he could be blind in his right eye :eek:

DD

PS - to be more OT than not !!! D2Xs, 70-200 f2.8 VR and SB800 is fine on a standard neck strap for me - though that set-up is likely to be only for up to an hour at a Wedding, otherwise it's a variety of smaller lenses on it. Strangely, my D300 with grip is even bigger and heavier too :eek:
 
DiddyDave said:
Stofens don't do any good angled or not when you're outside :lol:

And he could be blind in his right eye :eek:

DD
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It gets the flash head slightly higher, which is half the point with a longer lens :p

You got me on the blind eye though :D
 
Mike.P said:
Tried my Pentax A* 300mm f2.8 but it was just a bit too heavy.
Mind you, it wasnt so bad once I took it out of the case


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:lol::lol::D:D:woot::clap:
 
Martyn... said:
I always have the strap diagonally across my chest bandolier style (put your arm and head through) with the top of the camera resting against my body, this is far more comfortable, and forces the longer lenses to lie against your side.

I can carry a 300mm f4 attached this way in comfort.
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Me too! Albeit with the 70-200 2.8 IS :)
 
HoppyUK said:
It gets the flash head slightly higher, which is half the point with a longer lens :p

You got me on the blind eye though :D
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Well if we're being picky ;)

The flash-card or business card stuck on top at a 45 degree angle would be better still - about 5mm higher and forcing more of the light forwards too :D

DD
 
HoppyUK said:
Using your right eye gives better hand access to controls, and less nose grease on the LCD. StoFen works better angled at 45 degs :woot:
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i wasnt aware of any of that!, ill give it a go, is the stofen no good out side either??

im quite poor with flash techniques tbh,

and as for swapping eyes thats like asking me to w--k with my left hand!!,

but ill give it a try !

thanks for the input

:)
 
DiddyDave said:
Well if we're being picky ;)

The flash-card or business card stuck on top at a 45 degree angle would be better still - about 5mm higher and forcing more of the light forwards too :D

DD
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Well if we're being picky, true! 2:1 to you. Actually, that little pop-up flash cardy thingy works damn well, and www.ABetterBounceCard.com is even better Mr Fong. 2-all. And for 3:2 I'll raise you a LumiQuest Quik*

* Just got me one. Joking aside, it does everything very well indeed.
 
DoubleT said:
i wasnt aware of any of that!, ill give it a go, is the stofen no good out side either??

im quite poor with flash techniques tbh,

and as for swapping eyes thats like asking me to w--k with my left hand!!,

but ill give it a try !

thanks for the input

:)
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Don't use a Stofen, or any form of diffuser, with a longer lens outdoors - you're just wasting flash power and battery life if you do

DD
 
Getting back to the OP's question:D

I use an Optech Pro strap and spent all of Saturday with a 1Ds MkII and an 70-200 f/2.8 IS around my neck (too lardy for bandolier style, camera in armpit is even more uncomfortable than around neck)

I don't think I'd want any more weight than that though
 
Hanging the stuff around your neck is a good way to get back/neck ache if you have anything like a weighty camera lens setup.

The neck strap I only use around my neck for safety purposes whilst using the camera, after use its over my shoulder instead.

If you have anything bigger and heavier than a 70-200/300 f4 or similar sized glass, it comes with its own carry strap mounting points anyway. Thats because otherwise you'd b****r up the mount on your body!
 
I carry an EOS 40D body with a Sigma 120-400mm lens attached around my neck most weekends, using the standard strap, and don't have any problems with it.
 
DoubleT said:
i wasnt aware of any of that!, ill give it a go, is the stofen no good out side either??

im quite poor with flash techniques tbh,

and as for swapping eyes thats like asking me to w--k with my left hand!!,

but ill give it a try !

thanks for the input

:)
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Okay, since we're off topic anyway...

TBH StoFen isn't much use outside. It will raise the level of the flash head a bit more, which might give slightly nicer modelling and reduce the possibility of red eye which becomes more prominent at distance when the relative angle between the flash tube and the lens is reduced. But you'll squirt a lot of wasted light into the sky, so you might run out of flash power.

In the situation illustrated above, and with a big gun, it probably doesn't make any difference whether the StoFen is on or off, or up or down. You'll often see press pros at a do, like outside Downing Street, with their StoFens pointing up. This is a kind of default position and it works well pretty much all the time.

The StoFen works best indoors; it needs a ceiling to bounce off. Most of the light goes up to the ceiling (and also the walls) which gives a lot of even, soft light over a wide area. But there's also a bit of light going forward directly to the subject, and this lifts the light on faces a lot (a problem with bounce only) and puts a sparkle in the eye :thumbs: The big advantage of the StoFen is that it is a doddle to use, very small and robust in a press melee and does most things pretty well. Sometimes it will make a big difference, some times a little, but even if it does nothing at all that is rarely a problem. If you have a powerful enough gun (StoFen blasts a lot of light everywhere) just fit and forget.

You also get a very similar effect to the StoFen just by pulling out the white flash card that is fitted to the head of the Canon 580EX. I'm not sure which other guns have it, probably most, but it gives really very nice light too.

If you're interested in flash techniques, have a look at www.abetterbouncecard.com The guy talks sense and honestly makes me laugh! His A-better-Bounce-Card is actually about as good as it gets - same basic principle as StoFen. I would say better than that strange Gary Fong tupperware thing in that it doesn't waste so much light out of the back. But the best flash diffuser I've seen is the LumiQuest Quik mentioned above. £43 is a lot for what it is, but not for what it does. http://www.warehouseexpress.com/product/default.aspx?sku=1031217

I think it's unique in what it does, all in one attachment. This diffuser obviously has a bigger surface area than the naked flash head, which softens the light a lot. This is the main thing you want. You can also angle it so that it works perfectly in either horizontal and vertical modes. Furthermore, you can also open the bounce flaps for the combined bounce/direct effect that is so good with the other methods mentioned. Easy to fit and folds flat.
 
Thats great Hoppy,

thanks very much for your post, i need to look into using flash a bit more then so i can get the most out of my sb-800

and yes the sb-800 does have the pull out white card and also a clear plastic pull out that sits onto the face of the flash ( another bounce option? )

:)
 
DoubleT said:
Thats great Hoppy,

thanks very much for your post, i need to look into using flash a bit more then so i can get the most out of my sb-800

and yes the sb-800 does have the pull out white card and also a clear plastic pull out that sits onto the face of the flash ( another bounce option? )

:)
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You're welcome, and apologies for going off topic :)

The plastic diffuser is a wide-angle panel to ensure you get even light coverage with very wide lenses. Most guns have zoom heads which move with the angle of the lens. This saves wasting precious light when using longer lenses and increases range. But they can only zoom back so far, so the wide panel has its uses. Another useful thing about bounce flash is that it spreads light over a very wide area so you always get decent coverage with ultra-wide lenses anyway.

If you find yourself taking pictures of people a lot, this kind of flash/ambient technique makes a massive difference. Wedding photographers have a flash pretty much permanently attached, and use it for fill-in and bounce, or a bit of both, much of the time.

Balancing flash - fill-in and bounce - with ambient light, used to be a nightmare, but the bigger high end guns and really trick TTL exposure metering do it all automatically incredibly well but still give you a lot of control.

If this kind of thing appeals, get a big gun with real power, say a Guide Number of 58-60 or so. You need it because bouncing flash just gobbles huge amounts of light. And watch out for inefficient diffusers like the Fong that waste light - they slow down recycling and kill your batteries.

The other thing that top-end guns have is a high-speed sync mode, where the flash pulses at about 50KHz to provide an effectively continuous light that lasts long enough for focal plane shutters to sync at high speeds. This is invaluable for fill-flash in bright sun, but it also uses an enormous amount of power so range is reduced.
 
Martyn... said:
I always have the strap diagonally across my chest bandolier style (put your arm and head through) with the top of the camera resting against my body, this is far more comfortable, and forces the longer lenses to lie against your side.

I can carry a 300mm f4 attached this way in comfort.
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Me to, quite comfy that way, and can tuck the camera under my arm for protection against bumps.:thumbs:
 
Being a prop I reckon I could carry a 800mm ok, maybe a 1200mm but that might scratch the front element on the ground.

I often find my self resing my arms on my camera absent mindedly when it's around my neck.

After a few months of carrying a heavy lens you won't notice it any more
 
Uneducated_Rick said:
Being a prop I reckon I could carry a 800mm ok, maybe a 1200mm but that might scratch the front element on the ground.
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Maybe so, but the lens mount on the camera won't take that much weight dangling from it.

Last year one of our customers had a 500mm f/4 L IS on her camera, which was slung over her shoulder. The lens mount couldn't take the strain and gave way, and the lens fell to the ground. Ouch.

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My suggestion: if the lens is big enough to come with its own strap, then there's probably a reason for that.
 
StewartR said:
Maybe so, but the lens mount on the camera won't take that much weight.

My suggestion: if the lens is big enough to come with its own strap, then there's probably a reason for that.
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:plusone:

I use an adapted Optech Tripod strap on my 200-400, nice and wide to spread the weight, still carry the same way bandolier style diagonally across my body.
 
Martyn... said:
Any Optech strap will do, I use the basic ones on the body, and have adapted a tripod strap for my 200-400 lens.
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I use a tripod strap for the 3-8 sigma,works superbly well......:thumbs:
 
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