Stabalizing a Heavy Camera and Lens on a Tripod by Using a Balance Rail

[Sailor Blue]

I never use a tripod often when shooting portraits or glamour but I'm doing more landscapes in HDR now so I wanted a new low weight carbon fiber travel tripod. After searching the internet for good bargain priced tripods I settled on a ZOMEi Z888C carbon fiber tripod with their "Universal Professional Ultimate Ballhead".

There are much better carbon fiber tripods and ball heads available for more money but this is a very good choice as a budget priced carbon fiber travel tripod. You can buy direct from ZOMEi or from Amazon/eBay.

ZOMEi Store | Offcial Store for Camera Tripods & Lens Filters

The biggest problem is how well a relatively small 35 mm diameter ball head can hold a heavy camera and lens that are mounted via the camera's tripod mount. I put my Canon 7D with my Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L IS lens on the tripod and as you might expect the camera and lens quickly rotated down to point at the floor. It was possible to tighten the ball head enough to keep the camera and lens from rotating downward, but it is still unstable and prone to drift when I let go of the camera. I was also afraid of over tightening the ball head and damaging it.

For my EF 70-200mm f/4L IS it is possible to buy a Lens Support Collar and Tripod Mount Ring that clamps around the body of the lens and allows you to mount the lens, not the camera body, on the tripod. This balances the weight of the camera and lens on the tripod better so you don't wind up with the combination drifting as much.

My problem is that of my five lenses the Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L IS is the only one that has a tripod mount ring available.

My other EF lenses don't have tripod mount rings available because of their construction - there isn't any place where you can clamp around the body of the lens without the clamp interfering in the operation of the lens.

Tamron SP AF28-75mm F/2.8 XR Di USM
Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L IS
Tamron SP 90MM F/2.8 Di 1:1 Macro
Tokina AT-X 16-28mm f/2.8 PRO FX

EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II lens is light enough that it isn't a problem. It is also a lens I won't be using much in the future because of the new 16-28mm Tokina.

I turned to the cheap Macro Focusing Rail that I modified years ago by removing the worm gear so I could slide the mounting head along the rail more quickly.

eBay - 4 Way Macro Focusing Rail Slider Holder Mount for Nikon Canon Camera Lens Flash

You can see the hole left by removing the worm gear. An Arca Swiss plate from the new tripod is attached to the bottom of the slide. On the right is the camera tripod screw for mounting the camera.



Here is a view of the bottom of the slide showing the attached Arca Swiss plate for tripod mounting and the camera mounting bolt on the right.



To find the balance point I attached the camera with a lens on the rail, placed it on a hard surface like a granite counter top, and slide the camera down the rail until the whole thing balanced on the two bolt heads seen on the bottom of the Arca Swiss plate.



The camera and lens can also be rebalanced when the slide is attached to the tripod.



There are several things to be aware of if you adopt this method of mounting a camera and lens.

With the modified focusing rail you tip the camera and lens 90° into portrait mode with your tripod ball head. This is still pretty stable, just not as stable as with a Lens Support Collar and Tripod Mount Ring.

With a Lens Support Collar and Tripod Mount Ring you can switch from landscape to portrait orientation by loosing the support collar and rotating the camera and lens. This keeps the ball head of the tripod in the vertical orientation and the camera and lens directly over the center column of the tripod where it is most stable. Using a second Arca Swiss mount on top the slide along with an L bracket for the camera would allow also you to keep the balance point over the ball head for a small increase in weight.

Lenses that have internal focusing will change their balance point a small distance, which shouldn't be a problem. A lens that changes length very much as it focuses, such as my Tamron SP 90MM F/2.8 Di 1:1 Macro lens, is going to require rebalancing as the focus distance changes.

Tipping the camera and lens throws off the balance too. If the change is too great you have to rebalance by changing the slide position.

The use of the slide stabilizes the camera and lens much better than just using the camera's tripod mount and letting all that weight hang out in front of the tripod, but it is still a lot of weight on the small ball head so caution is advised.

--
Living and loving it in Pattaya, Thailand. Canon 5DS R & 7D - See the gear list for the rest.

 

[Mark B.]

With my heavier lenses, or when shooting tripod mounted in a fixed shooting position, I'll use my bogen 3221 tripod and either the Bogen 3047 3-way head or a gimbal head when birding with the 500 f/4.

Mark

 

[BGD300V1]

Get a bigger ballhead and something to hang a waterbottle or sandbag from the tripod.

 

[TheBrilliantShadow]

I am not sure if you want some feedback on your sollution, a general discussion or ideas for more stable sollutions.

The way I balance my gear is by using a nodal slide. It's basicly the same thing you do, but it attaches using arca swiss dove tail. This has some advantages, like allowing the use of a L-Bracket, which makes portrait mounting on the tripod a breeze and as stable as in landscape orientation. Also, since you name a 70-200, an arca plate on that one would also allow for better balancing. Taking off arca clamps is fast and easy, especialy when you use clamps with a lever instead of a screw knob.

An idea that is floating through my head is to use a gimbal as tripod head. When you have a model which mounts the camera in line with the rotation axis, and a long enough nodal rail, you got a very versatile and very balanced setup which allowes for multi-row panoramas, wildlife shooting, stills, etc. It may be more bulky / heavy than most other sollutions but I think it could be the closest to a do-it-all sollution.

 

[D Meredith]

A nodal slide is one solution.

Replacing the ball head with one that works is the best option.

 

[Richard B99]

I am not sure if you want some feedback on your sollution, a general discussion or ideas for more stable sollutions.

The way I balance my gear is by using a nodal slide. It's basicly the same thing you do, but it attaches using arca swiss dove tail. This has some advantages, like allowing the use of a L-Bracket, which makes portrait mounting on the tripod a breeze and as stable as in landscape orientation. Also, since you name a 70-200, an arca plate on that one would also allow for better balancing. Taking off arca clamps is fast and easy, especialy when you use clamps with a lever instead of a screw knob.

An idea that is floating through my head is to use a gimbal as tripod head. When you have a model which mounts the camera in line with the rotation axis, and a long enough nodal rail, you got a very versatile and very balanced setup which allowes for multi-row panoramas, wildlife shooting, stills, etc. It may be more bulky / heavy than most other sollutions but I think it could be the closest to a do-it-all sollution.

I too also use a nodal rail for this with a couple of longer lenses without lens feet as it just takes a couple of seconds to mount and it all locks up very rigidly (rail to head, rail to body) with little effort. Of course, its perhaps the solution for anyone using a head with an Arca clamp rather than old screw in head to camera approach.

 

[Sailor Blue]

Get a bigger ballhead and something to hang a waterbottle or sandbag from the tripod.

For now the balance rail works well enough that I don't need to buy a new head with a larger ball head. Perhaps someday when GAS strikes again.

I didn't mention hanging a camera bag, water bottles, etc. on the underside of the tripod because while that stabilizes the tripod it doesn't do anything to stabilize the camera on the ball head.

 

[Sailor Blue]

I am not sure if you want some feedback on your sollution, a general discussion or ideas for more stable sollutions.

The way I balance my gear is by using a nodal slide. It's basicly the same thing you do, but it attaches using arca swiss dove tail.

As you can see above I attached an Arca Swiss dove tale plate to the bottom of my cheap slide rail. I also use the same slide rail as a nodal slide for panoramas and to allow me to move my DSLR side to side the appropriate distances for cha cha 3D photography. Multipurpose.

This has some advantages, like allowing the use of a L-Bracket, which makes portrait mounting on the tripod a breeze and as stable as in landscape orientation. Also, since you name a 70-200, an arca plate on that one would also allow for better balancing. Taking off arca clamps is fast and easy, especialy when you use clamps with a lever instead of a screw knob.

Ordered a cheap Arcs Swiss clamp and L bracket from eBay out of China to try this after it was suggested in another forum. I'll mount the clamp on top the slide to allow me to switch the camera from horizontal to portrait orientations without effecting the balance over the ball head.

The only problem is that the delivery date is 6-8 weeks for the L bracket - should have ordered from a different supplier.

An idea that is floating through my head is to use a gimbal as tripod head. When you have a model which mounts the camera in line with the rotation axis, and a long enough nodal rail, you got a very versatile and very balanced setup which allowes for multi-row panoramas, wildlife shooting, stills, etc. It may be more bulky / heavy than most other sollutions but I think it could be the closest to a do-it-all sollution.

 

[Sailor Blue]

I am not sure if you want some feedback on your sollution, a general discussion or ideas for more stable sollutions.

The way I balance my gear is by using a nodal slide. It's basicly the same thing you do, but it attaches using arca swiss dove tail. This has some advantages, like allowing the use of a L-Bracket, which makes portrait mounting on the tripod a breeze and as stable as in landscape orientation. Also, since you name a 70-200, an arca plate on that one would also allow for better balancing. Taking off arca clamps is fast and easy, especialy when you use clamps with a lever instead of a screw knob.

An idea that is floating through my head is to use a gimbal as tripod head. When you have a model which mounts the camera in line with the rotation axis, and a long enough nodal rail, you got a very versatile and very balanced setup which allowes for multi-row panoramas, wildlife shooting, stills, etc. It may be more bulky / heavy than most other sollutions but I think it could be the closest to a do-it-all sollution.

I too also use a nodal rail for this with a couple of longer lenses without lens feet as it just takes a couple of seconds to mount and it all locks up very rigidly (rail to head, rail to body) with little effort. Of course, its perhaps the solution for anyone using a head with an Arca clamp rather than old screw in head to camera approach.

I had never run across this in over 60 years of photography but as they say, there is nothing new under the sun. Apparently I just reinvented the same thing others figured out before I did.

I'll take comfort in the idea that by posting this I am bringing the idea to the forums again as a solution for the newer photographers who don't know about it.