I recently modified an Olympus collar to fit the Tamron 80-200/2.8.
Although it was wasn't as straightforward as I first anticipated, it now
works. After filing off the little brass guide pin on the inner surface I
found that the collar wouldn't close around the lens barrel so I realised
I'd have to remove some of the adhesive rubber grip in order to increase
the effective internal diameter of the collar. Eventually I found a
permutation of sizes and positions of rubber strips which ensured not only
that the collar fitted and that the barrel was securely gripped but also
that none of the exposed metal surface of the collar pressed against the
barrel. It requires quite a lot of force to locate the guide pins in the
bottom plate into the corresponding holes but once they're in, the collar
seems to close normally around the lens barrel. A more elegant solution
might have been to find a thinner rubber material which could be stuck all
the way round the tripod collar but I couldn't lay my hands on any at the
time. A dot of correction fluid at the 12 o'clock position of the collar
allows the correct orientation for horizontal or vertical formats shots to
be set easily. Skip Williams also gave me a tip for using this heavy beast
hand-held: rotate the collar so that the base-plate is in the 7 o'clock
position and then it rests nicely in the palm of the left hand while
shooting - much more comfortable but still heavy!
Overall the zoom with converted OM collar seems pretty solid on the tripod,
has a lower profile than with the Tamron collar and it is also much easier
to rotate the lens inside the collar. One caveat though: when loosening the
screw to rotate the collar, don't loosen too much or the guide pins on the
base will spring out of place - much more work to get thing back on than
using the original.
Cheers,
Duncan.
At 04:07 02.03.04, you wrote:
>Its tripod mount is a smaller and vastly
>superior design to the Tamron's.
>
>I'm sure the Tamron is ultimately the better lens, but not convinced
>there is any practical difference in any situation other than with a
>steady subject and sturdy tripod. There is actually some flex in the
>Tamron tripod mount which was very noticeable using it on a monopod. I
>thought at first it was not tightened enough, but I know others have
>broken the mounts through overtightening, so I looked carefully and
>found that the mount itself actually flexes. Note, don't buy one without
>the tripod mount unless you want to try the Oly 300/4.5 mount conversion.
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