[Sudhakar]

Greetings,

While discussing with a friend about tripods, he kind of mentioned, be careful about your camera mount holding capacity of (weight) considering the lens. My question is does it vary from camera to camera? I have a beast called Pentax K 300/f4 prime lens which weighs 1.1 kg. I use Pentax K100D super. It does not have collar support to mount on tripod. Most of the time I hold with hand while taking shots. Even if I lug around my neck, it will be quite irritating to carry that much weight.

So coming back to my question, how can we judge the capacity of a camera mount to hold certain weight?

thanks in advance
--Sudhakar

[kittykat46]

A 1.1 kg lens is not a problem for the camera mount under normal usage.
The Pentax lens mount is pretty solidly build , so is the stainless steel internal chasis, even for the K100D. But if you feel more comfortable and in control by holding the lens, why not ?

If either lens or camera hits the concrete floor , that's a problem.

Your friend may have had Entry-level Canons in mind....different subject...

I use the presence of a collar mount on the lens as a rough guide. A lens with a tripod collar mount is meant to be supported by holding the lens body, and that's what I do. I'm usually more worried about the lens side of the mount - it sometimes looks flimsy.

[ewig]

pentax K 300/f4 has a collar, you can buy it..separately...or look for the third party produk,
if you dont have any other choice you cant mount your K100 D direct to tripod , 1,1 Kg not going to break your mount, just dont move it so fast ..

[Lowell Goudge]

I carry this lens, along with the 1.7x AF TC all the time on my *istD, K10D and K7

I also use sigma's 70-200F2.7 EX with a sigma 2xTC

I have often wondered about this, and at one point my K10 shutter failed. Along with the shutte they replaced the mirror and lens mount. I don't remember dropping the camera ever, but the only other reason would be wight, yet I still carry my camera that way, either by the grip or strap on the camera with one of these heavy combos.


My thinking is, if pentax was worried about the weight, (and the DA300F4 is heavier than the K300F4) they would put strap hooks on the lenses.

[wlachan]

From what I remember, 1kg seems to be the max recommended load b4 lens collar was needed. This is only a very rough guide of course because the major concern is not really the mounts themselves (chrome plated brass), but how they were fastened onto the cameras. Back to the manual focus era, cameras were made of metal and the mirror boxes were solid pieces of aluminum alloy. These were where the camera mounts were fixed on. Fast forward to now, except for the top end Canon & Nikon (not sure about Sony or Olympus), all Pentax DSLRs have plastic mirror boxes which are where the metal mounts are fixed onto. There were cases where the camera mounts were ripped because the plastic threads were overloaded with long teles. Not necessarily from impact, but a free fall from a tripod w/o hitting the ground will be enough to pull the camera mount right off the plastic mirror box. A damage like this will be total loss because replacing the mirror box means rebuilding the whole camera, simply more expensive than buying a new one. Also, existing Pentax bodies (K-7/5 might be the exception because they have alloy shells) have rather flexible bodies. With heavy long tele, they are more prone to vibration on tripod. Trying to compose precisely w/o lens collar is also a challenge. Pentax cameras from the 80's or earlier were much stronger than what we have now. They could handle beasts like 300/4 with ease, but you just have to be more careful now. Even the FA*200/2.8 is borderline imho.

[snostorm]

Hi Sudhakar,

I'd say don't worry about it. Take normal care not to knock you camera and lens, but my experience is that the mount on any of the Pentax bodies will support the weight. I have, for the past 4 years, regularly carried a DS, K10, K20, and K-7 with a variety of 300 f2.8 lenses mounted, and have had no problems.

These lenses average over 6 lbs and are very front heavy because of the 112mm front elements, so the leverage against the mount is extreme. Also, I carry the cameras in my hand with a grip strap or on a Cotton Carrier as opposed to a neck strap attached to the lens, so the weight of the lens is always stressing the mount. When actually shooting, these lenses are mounted on a Wimberley Sidekick via the tripod collar on the lens, but any time I'm moving from one site to another, I carry the camera in my hand rather than leaving them mounted to the tripod as many photographers do. The actual majority of the time I'm out, the camera is supporting the lens as opposed to the other way around. If lens weight stess on the mount is going to be a problem, I think I would already have experienced some. . .

The minimum lens weight I normally have mounted would be about 1+ Kg with the FA*300/4.5 + the F1.7x AFA or Sigma EX 180/3.5 with the F 1.7x AFA and a Metz 15 MS1 flash mounted on the end of the lens. I shoot these handheld, so they're never supported by a tripod collar, and the lens weight is always only supported by the mount.

Another factor is that I'm retired, and my main activity is photography, so I'm out more often than the average amateur. I average over 20K shutter actuations per year, and rarely shoot continuous strings.

Bottom line, worry about the mount if you want, but I would consider it a waste of attention.

Scott

[SpecialK]

I would be more worried about the tripod socket than the lens mount.

[8540tomg]

Greetings,

While discussing with a friend about tripods, he kind of mentioned, be careful about your camera mount holding capacity of (weight) considering the lens. My question is does it vary from camera to camera? I have a beast called Pentax K 300/f4 prime lens which weighs 1.1 kg. I use Pentax K100D super. It does not have collar support to mount on tripod. Most of the time I hold with hand while taking shots. Even if I lug around my neck, it will be quite irritating to carry that much weight.

So coming back to my question, how can we judge the capacity of a camera mount to hold certain weight?

thanks in advance
--Sudhakar

I'm not sure how you judge how much weight a lens mount can handle. I have the K 300/4 and like yourself I was concerned about the weight of the beast. It was very front-end heavy on my tripod and I was worried it was going to nosedive into the sidewalk on more than one shoot. My solution with this lens was to have a tripod collar made by a local machine shop. The results was a perfect balance with my K2, MX and now with my K10 cameras. There is a picture of the mount in my review of the K 300/4.

SMC Pentax 300mm F4 Lens Reviews - Pentax Lens Review Database

It works great and vastly improved the results with this lens. An added bonus was the fact I'm no longer concerned about the rig nosediving into the concrete.

Tom G