Advice for long lens rental for Yosemite

[Don7x17]

Good luck

You shouldn't have any problem with the lightweight T500 Nikor. Its so light that it won't be a problem on either rail type on the arca.

[An Infinite Journey]

Thank you to everyone! This forum is one of the main reasons I bought a LF camera last year - I knew there would be support when I needed it.

Now it's just up to my newbie trepidations and the weather...but adversity can also produce fruit, so here goes nothing - besides the valley is always beautiful you just have to look.

[venchka]

Amen! I would trade being in Yosemite right now with my phone camera for sitting in my office in Houston.

[Steve M Hostetter]

If your going to rent one I'd rent one with the most coverage and I'd guess that would be the Fuji 600mm 11.5 ,,, extremely portable I've got one

[Steve M Hostetter]

thats not to say you wouldn't need to shoot an 8x10" cam with a reducing back to get the "full" advantage of the 622mm IC I've never tried to shoot the 600mm lens on a 4x5 cam.. It is a small lens though just not extremely bright

[An Infinite Journey]

I couldn't use the Fuji 600 without buying a long bellows and an extension rail - that's why I've settled with the Nikkor T500 from Seattle...hopefully they do shipping. Other wise I may have to take Wayne up on his tip at KEH - a Fuji 600T and drop the ~$900...I just have to figure out how to swing that money past the gate keeper...

Wayne - anywhere is better than work unless you're a firefighter.

[venchka]

You can't blame it on me. I was never here!

[An Infinite Journey]

Wayne - who??? Nope, didn't see um at-tall...nope not at-tall...

[Vaughn]

Good words, Keith...I have wandered and photographed across the valley from Horsetail Falls when it was flowing...just seeing the Falls was good enough for me. The "Golden" time is the time one is There.

Actually I would like to test my legs and get back again to the base of Ribbon Falls (it is a tough hike for an aging flatlander and an 8x10! One has to get there early in the day to avoid getting flatten by falling ice. I was there in the afternoon during a February and watched from a very safe distance as chunks of ice rained down. One time I tried to get close to its base when the water was really flowing. It was like walking against a hurricane wind. I had stashed my camera in a dry place as the air seemed to have more water in it than oxygen. I did not get very close before turning back!

Vaughn

[Eric Leppanen]

the FC/F Arcas have had two different rails...

[The] first style rail was pretty wobbly when a large lens was put onto the end -- whereas the second style rail does not have this problem.

Since I use long lenses, which tend to be heavy, I replaced all the rail and brackets with the newer thicker style.

These two rail types may account for much of the discussion about "my rail needs support" v.s. "my rail doesn't need any extra support".

Sure enough, in reviewing the photographs of his Arca in his book, it appears that Jack Dykinga is using the "wobbly" first style of rail. I asked Rod Klukas of Photomark about this, and Rod noted that Dykinga is a long distance hiker/backpacker and may have retained the original rails because they are slightly lighter. This makes sense since Dykinga does not include his 400 APO Tele Xenar in his long distance hiking kit, and his remaining lenses do not use a shutter larger than Copal 1. Dykinga also routinely stops down to f/45 whenever possible, preferring not to spend additional time determining a more optically optimal f-stop (diffraction doesn't bother him), so he tends to always use slow shutter speeds and can be more vulnerable to shutter vibration.

Rod uses a Fuji 600C (Copal 3) regularly on his "new rail" Arca without any additional stabilization, and it works just fine. So mystery solved!

Thanks to Phil to highlighting the discrepancy here, and to Don for informing us of the likely cause. What a great forum!

Michie, it sounds like your 500T is the ticket. Good luck, have fun, and let us know how things turn out!