sidekick temporary setup

Blogged in The Woodwork: Nikkor Enthusiast

 

Sidekick Temporary Setup

Riverstone Townhomes, Mountain View, CA

 

Casio EX-Z750, built-in flash

NeatImage, Nik CEP (pro contrast, highlights), Photoshop (extract)

1/125 sec @ f/2.8, iso 100, 7.9mm (38mm)

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Really Right Stuff doesn’t have the 70-200mm ƒ/2.8 VR replacement foot in stock, so this is my temporary setup. It consists of:

- Gitzo 1228LVL leveling tripod

- Really Right Stuff BH-55 ballhead

- Wimberley Sidekick (the clamp is on upside down so you can't see the logo)

- Really Right Stuff PCL-II panoramic clamp

- Really Right Stuff D70 L bracket

- Nikon D70 (you can see the UpStrap and Zing hand strap that are attached to it)

- Nikon TC-20E II doubler

- Nikon AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor ED 70-200mm f/2.8G IF (there is a Kirk replacement knob attached to it)

 

It works—the gimbal head glides so effortlessly that Caitlin now thinks that 3-way heads are crap. The big problem is that since it is mounted on the L-bracket, it is hell to switch from landscape to portrait. A RRS or Kirk photo replacement foot or Wimberley plate would fix that. On the other hand, the pano clamp allows me to mount the Nikon with any lens I own. That might prove very useful for vertical or cubic panoramics.

 

IMO, this is a wonderful example of why you should use Arca-Swiss-compatible equipment. The versatility of mix-and-match is fun. :-)

 

This photo is a cheat. I actually took the shot of my Nikon setup on my porch and composited in one of my rejected shots of a seagull at Point Lobos (hidden behind the camera). The highlights are blown because I don't know how to use my girlfriend’s camera to do fill flash.

Done