M8 and tripod

[Photoskeptic]

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Probably the most interesting item I have added to my tripod is a Novoflex Panoramic base for the ball head. It's anodized blue (strange color on a tripod!) and has a leveling bubble incorporated. I shot a seven frame pano first time out and it turned out great.

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[HaraldL]

We all have that problem when the shutter speeds get too slow. My solution is to move the camera, as much as possible, from my hands to my shoulders. I learned the technique during my sniper training, and you can ask any expert rifleman about it:

 

1. Adjust the strap so that the camera hangs around your neck, and about two fingers above your belt buckle.

2. Move your left hand inside the loop from below, so that the camera hangs diagonally, strap below your left arm, camera below your left nipple. (Good anti-theft position too!)

3. Now raise the camera to your face. Put your left wrist over the strap, inside, and then under and out, so that the strap is wound around your wrist.

4. The tension of the strap should now keep the camera steady against your arms (keep the elbows tucked in!) and against your face. The technique works in both landscape and portrait mode. You must be prepared to do some testing to get the strap length right, and to adjust it according to the clothing you are wearing.

 

The old man from the Age of Wooden Tripods

 

Once I went target shooting with a bird-photographer, he was very good in this first time rifle experience. He told me releasing the shutter with 600 mm is the same feeling and technique as pulling the trigger. And even more: only one oppurtunity, one shot one...

[lars_bergquist]

I agree that trigger control, and also breathing control, are very important. This is of course even more important when you shoot a pistol. There, you can miss the paper cleanly at 25 meters if you jerk the trigger!

 

The heft of the M8 is a good thing. It adds inertia, which acts as a stabilizer. You can in fact gain some stability by using a monopod *collapsed*, because the farther out the mass is, the more it brakes swings and tremor.

 

The old man from the Age of Wooden Tripods

[carstenw]

I have the BH-25, and while it is a nice ballhead and probably steady enough for the M8 with lenses up to 90 and maybe even 135, it isn't as smooth as the larger headers, and does is harder to set up horizontally. I might get a BH-40 or some other slightly larger head at some point.