Originally posted by eyespywithmyi Great read, thanks for documenting your journey. So you carry and handhold the 560? It's very tempting but I use my 150-450 for birds and sometimes I'm holding the lens up for a bit trying to capture a flitty little songbird and it starts to get heavy after a bit of holding it up. Time for more pushups for me I guess...
when i first got the 560 in july i spent quite a bit of time experimenting. the first thing i did was get a 168mm lens plate so i could mount it at the center of balance when attached to my K1. the balance point is about 50 mm behind the last tripod screw hole on the built in lens mount.
then i looked at how to carry it, when out hiking and at present my hikes are typically 5-8 km and 1.5 - 2.5 hours. I carry the lens with an extra long padded optek strap, over the opposite shoulder (i.e. neck and shoulder cross body) The strap hooks on the lens are too far back, and the lens tips forward, but it only takes light effort by either hand to hold the lens level in addition to the strap. and with the right length strap, this is achieved with only a slight elbow bend of the arm. it is quite comfortable for hours at a time
shooting, and this is where there is a trick, to hold the lens, i rotate the tripod mount to about the 11:00 position (with respect to you being behind the camera and lens i.e. holding the lens to your eye) and put my hand between the tripod foot and the lens body, with my thumb around the leg of the tripod mount (sort of wearing it like a baseball glove if that makes sense to you) the impact is that you are not actually holding the weight of the lens with your grip, but the weight is transferred from the tripod foot directly to the back of your wrist, and into your arm, your grip is used only around the leg of the tripod foot and over the top of the lens barrel, to hold your hand in place
in that way, it is comfortable to hold the lens to my eye for a very long time (i.e. several minutes for sure, as i walk along and spot things to shoot) having spent the time to figure out the tripod mount at the beginning, i have never actually used it again, i shoot exclusively hand held with the 560.
I do not claim to be super man, or even exceptionally fit or strong, and am within a few years of normal retirement so this is not a boast of the young and foolish. hand holding the 560 as i have described is . at least for me, quite simple. even considering it is about double the weight of my sigma APO 70-200/2.8 and 2X TC which would be similar in weight to the 150-450/5.6