Lens collar for Nikon 300mm f/4 PF - Nikon RT-1, Kirk, or budget knock-off?

[Neilmack]

I would like a collar for my Nikon 300mm f/4 PF, mainly for when I use it with a teleconverter.

The choices are Nikon's own RT-1 or Kirk's NC-300P, both the thick end of £200, or never-heard-of-the-brand i-Shoot RT-1 for twenty five quid on Amazon.

Any experience to share?

 

[gramps]

I used a cheapie on mine occasionally and it was absolutley fine, hinged collar and holding screw ... not much to cost an extra £175 when you think about it!

 

[gcgraphs]

I'm using the Kirk, but I do tend to fit Kirk fixtures to all my lenses. It does work well but as @gramps says the low cost one would most likely be fine!

This is the Kirk collar on D500/300mm f/4 PF/TC-14E III combo:

GC

 

[myotis]

Any experience too share?

I have the Kirk, which I bought in preference to the Nikon to get the arca swiss base plate fitting. I also have an i-shoot panorama head and it appears to be well made and works smoothly. For £25.00 I would be tempted to give the i-shoot version a go. It's not a great loss if you decide to still go for the Kirk.

 

[twist]

I have the Kirk, which I bought in preference to the Nikon to get the arca swiss base plate fitting. I also have an i-shoot panorama head and it appears to be well made and works smoothly. For £25.00 I would be tempted to give the i-shoot version a go. It's not a great loss if you decide to still go for the Kirk.

pretty great loss if it breaks and the gear falls.

 

[gramps]

pretty great loss if it breaks and the gear falls.

Why do you think it would break?

 

[twist]

Why do you think it would break?

Dunno, cheaper materials, poor manufacturing. Things are usually cheaper for a reason.

 

[gramps]

Dunno, cheaper materials, poor manufacturing. Things are usually dirt cheap for a reason.

If you have handled the 300 PF you will know that it is extremely light ... the i-shoot collar no doubt has less finesse than a Kirk and possible the Nikon but it is perfectly able to support the lens fitted to a D850.
Some 'alternatives' to many things are well over-priced for what they are.

 

[Kaolin]

I have a i-shoot collar for my 300pf and I have no great worries about it. As gramps mentioned the lens is very light, so I have few worries. Recently purchased a RRS for my 500pf and whilst it is a lot nicer, I doubt it is really worth the ~£150 differential.

 

[myotis]

pretty great loss if it breaks and the gear falls.

Well, as I said the i-shoot panorama head seems well made and works smoothly, which given the OP had never heard of the make, I thought might be helpful, as an indicator of the likely quality. It's obviously up to the OP to assess the quality and risks when/if he has it in his hands.

 

[Neilmack]

I'm using the Kirk, but I do tend to fit Kirk fixtures to all my lenses. It does work well but as @gramps says the low cost one would most likely be fine!

This is the Kirk collar on D500/300mm f/4 PF/TC-14E III combo:

GC

The bees' knees of an outfit!

 

[andrewc]

I bought a chinese knock off Canon tripod collar for a 70-200 lens from Ebay. It wasn't the cheapest but they had sold lots of them. It looked almost identical to the correct Canon one, including a faux Canon box, but wasn't made to tight tolerances (you could still move the lens with it tightened down, and ultimately wasn't very good. I didn't really trust it.

I'm told other versions from other sellers were better, so if you go the ebay route, check out recommendations on specific items/sellers here - or hold out for a genuine one secondhand.