tripod collars?

jterry85 · Sep 13, 2011

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if tripod collars for my lenses were necessary as opposed to attaching the camera body to the tripod? If so can someone explain to me the way they are sized/fitted/sold so that I can look into buying some? I looked at them online but there seems to be a whole lot of them and I had a hard time figuring out which ones to get or if they were even necessary. Thanks!

Joe

Overread · Sep 13, 2011

Most lenses that require a tripod collar come with them, there are a few exceptions (eg canon 100mm original macro comes without the collar), but most come with them. The collar itself is there in most cases, because the lens is of considerable weight and, using the tripod mount on the camera results in most of the weight of the setup being forward on the lens. This not only puts a lot of stress on the tripod mount, but also makes the setup very unstable and prone to fall over; thus the collar is used to redistribute the weight to be more even around the tripod mount on the collar itself.

Big Mike · Sep 13, 2011

For some lenses they are helpful, for some lenses, they are a requirement (if you want to shoot in a tripod/monopod).

For example, if you take a little camera like a Canon Rebel, and mount a huge lens on it, like a 400mm F2.8....the centre of gravity won't be at or near the camera. If you did mount the camera to a tripod, the lens would be a big weight, cantilevered way out in front of the camera, which would put a lot of torque/stress on the camera's lens mount, on the tripod socket, on the tripod head etc. Anything but a heavy duty tripod head will likely sag under the weight.

Also, this isn't an ideal situation for sharp shots as any tiny vibrations will be magnified at the front end of the lens.

Now, if you use a tripod collar on the lens, it allows you to mount the rig close to the centre of gravity which should give you a good balance on the tripod/monopod. This puts much less stress on the gear and is a much more stable and easy to use setup.

I'd guess that most big/heavy lenses are made to be used with a collar, so they either come with a collar or they have a knob/tab/space for a specific collar to fit.

If your lens didn't come with a collar and/or if you can't find one listed specifically for that lens...maybe your lens isn't big enough to require it.

So what camera & lenses are we talking about here?

jterry85 · Sep 13, 2011

I have Canon Digital Rebel XT and now a Canon 7D. With the exception of my Bower 650mm-1300mm which comes with a tripod attachment, the longest lens I have is a Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens. I had heard that you don't want to attach the camera body to the tripod/monopod for some reason and was curious if this was true.

Big Mike · Sep 13, 2011

I think that with the 70-300mm F4-5.6, you will be fine with the camera mounted to a tripod/monopod. It won't be the most stable situation, but at long as you have a good quality head (on the pod), that is rated for the weight, it should be fine.