[TDvN57]

I stumbled across this article on Petapixel wherein Blair Bunting describes how camera balance impacts him.

Camera Balance: An Often Overlooked But Important Feature | PetaPixel

I find camera-lens balance on medium format can make or break your day, although I didn't think in full-frame it would be such a big issue since the kit is overall lighter.

What is your experience and how does camera-lens balance impact you?

[Eric Auer]

I find the title of the PP article amusing.

Nobody who cares overlooks balance.

Well maybe it's not that big of a deal if the camera spends most of its life on a tripod, but still.

[RICHARD L.]

Most of my 645 lenses are nicely balanced except this new FA* 300 mm f/4 ED IF. It is front-heavy and must have adequate support to nail sharp pictures at moderate ISO's and speeds. I took the steeple picture handheld, lying on my back, 1/800 sec @ f/7.1. The camera being aimed upwards concentrated the weight in just one point and stabilized the picture. Anything shot at less than 1/200 sec is a call for disaster.

[MarkJerling]

I stumbled across this article on Petapixel wherein Blair Bunting describes how camera balance impacts him.

Camera Balance: An Often Overlooked But Important Feature | PetaPixel

I find camera-lens balance on medium format can make or break your day, although I didn't think in full-frame it would be such a big issue since the kit is overall lighter.

What is your experience and how does camera-lens balance impact you?

It's a bit if an odd article in my view for the simple reason that "balance" will vary widely depending on which lens someone hangs off the front of their camera. So widely, in fact, that I question whether "balance" really deserves to be talked about in terms of the camera body, rather than in terms of the lens.

I suppose, if one is only ever mounting a smaller lens, then the issue of "balance" may come into play in a way that reflects well or poorly on a specific camera body, but the moment you play with larger, heavier lenses then the weight and size of the lens is going to skew the whole equation in any event. Now, I get that having a battery grip will help someone like me to hold the camera more securely (which is why I never remove the battery grip from my K-1) but I prefer the battery grip even with a small lens mounted.

Whenever one uses a large, heavy lens, the time honoured way of using an SLR style camera means that your left hand will be supporting the lens and, in fact, holding and balancing the bulk of the weight of the camera and lens combination, while the right hand will be accessing most of the camera controls (in the case of the K-1 anyway, where most controls are easily accessible with the right hand) including the shutter button.

I think the article writer is trying to make too much of the basic effect of gravity on a camera and lens combination.

[Cerebum]

Thanks for sharing but it smacks somewhat of a contractual obligation article. I think we are all often painfully aware of the balance of a set up, but soon get to grips with even the most ungainly ones. I guess the knowledge that you would feel like you were "lugging" your lens may make you approach it with less excited anticipation but we use the lens we need so it won't impact on choice.

[house]

I could barely read the article because of the terrible photos illustrating it. They look like screen dumps from a computer game. Which is see someone in the comments felt as well.

[StiffLegged]

And I thought the Northrups talked tosh! It seems the poor soul can only shoot with two hands on the camera body since supporting the lens in his left hand is just too complicated; but never fear, he can ask for another camera or two to get one that doesn’t dig into his hand, poor dear.

Blithering nonsense.

[AfterPentax Mark II]

What is your experience and how does camera-lens balance impact you?

Oops! Never knew there was such a thing as camera balance. Camera weight, yes. Balance? Ridiculous. I know there are camera's with an electronic spirit level and they help you to keep your camera level, but I do not associate this with balance, but one could say so. So camera balance is if you hold it straight and not tumbling to right or left. I never realised it, but I always support the camera with my left hand and with a lens with a focus lenght exceeding 50mm or so I support camera and lens with my left hand, I think that is just natural. Does not have anything to do with balance, it is just natural shake reduction. Even a Smartphone I hold with both hands to keep it steady because with my right hand I have to push the "button" and that is the moment when there is a risk of a shake. Just like my mirrorless NX100. So this is what you do when you take a picture and now someone has invented a problem to explain why you naturally do things when taking a picture?

[SFTphotography]

My 645z is never not on a tripod so it really doesn't matter.

Use a tripod collar if the camera is front heavy with a big lens on.

[Michail_P]

Camera balance is very important to me and my style. The K-70 is not that heavy, but I usually spend hours holding it and walking, or hiking with the camera hanging from my neck. It gets really tiring, so when I wanna get the shot -most of the times handheld- I need the balance. I don't wanna have to think over it at all. Especially with a telephoto on...

[biz-engineer]

What is your experience and how does camera-lens balance impact you?

I disagree with the trend in digital cameras: small sensor with huge lenses.

Firstly, as you say, huge lens on small body doesn't feel good for the user.
Secondly, razor thin depth of field isn't an advantage, depth of field should be large enough to fit the subject matter within it, I find f4 is about right for portrait shot, f1.2 useless for me
Thirdly, huge lens don't provide any substantial increase in image resolution, once sensor resolution is reach the difference between small lens and large super corrected fast lens is negligible

For me, based on my shooting style, the trend of fast camera, small sensor with huge lenses don't match what I'm expecting from a camera system. I would much prefer larger sensors with smaller lenses, with the weight of camera closer to the photographer, much like LF film setups are: huge film, tiny lens, excellent potential for image enlargement.

[StiffLegged]

The article is particularly funny when this Explorer or Light (sic) tried the 1Diii with an LCD viewfinder adapter: unless I’m much mistaken that fastens over the rear screen and gives you an eyepiece to view it with. To restore the mirrorless shooting experience. Words fail me!

Perhaps he ought to try handholding a 600mm f/4 combo the same way.

[TDvN57]

Most of my 645 lenses are nicely balanced except this new FA* 300 mm f/4 ED IF. It is front-heavy and must have adequate support to nail sharp pictures at moderate ISO's and speeds. I took the steeple picture handheld, lying on my back, 1/800 sec @ f/7.1. The camera being aimed upwards concentrated the weight in just one point and stabilized the picture. Anything shot at less than 1/200 sec is a call for disaster.

Isn't it amazing how people have different experiences with the same equipment. Contrary to your experience Richard, I find the 645z well balanced with the FA* 300mm. The picture below is handheld with my elbows resting on a ship's rail (balustrade).

I find the 645z unbalanced and difficult to hold still with the FA 75mm, and the FA 45-85 with most of the weight in the camera. I find that 75mm too short to hold, and the 45-85 a little on the light side.

With the better 'balanced' lenses I find the center of gravity somewhere between the front of the camera and where you would expect a tripod collar to be on the lens. That would place the center of gravity about halfway between the camera grip and the comfortable support of the lens with your left hand.

The A* 600mm I find very unbalanced with all of the weight on the lens side, but then the lens is too heavy to handhold anyway and balance is a moot point. Despite that, the size of the 645z still makes working with the 600mm a pleasant experience.

[RICHARD L.]

Indeed Theuns, the more I use the FA* 300 mm f/4 ED, the more I'm starting to get the knack of handholding it. But it remains heavy, magnifies the image by a factor of 5X and is still front-heavy. I use gun-shooting technique with increasing success but have found my lower limit to be 1/200 second handheld. Using a tripod obviates to all this anxiety of missing your shot. Funny that I took a "first" great picture without any support and missed the following 20 due to shake ... lol !

Best Regards !

[DonV]

Richard,
why is there no exif data on your photo?