Lens Tripod Collar?

[Teemō]

I want to buy the Minolta MD 300mm F4.5 IF (Internal Focusing) which does not have the tripod collar of its predecessor, and is supposed to be used hand-held. Is there a thirdparty tripod colalr that I can buy to fit the lens? Alternatively, if I decide to adapt the lens to a mirrorless camera, will an adaptor with built-in tripod socket be okay or could that result in strain and damage to the camera mount?

[Himself]

Measure the diameter and look for that size on ebay.
You'll find something.

[Teemō]

[Himself]

Est modus in rebus.

[Teemō]

[calvin83]

As far as I heard, the lens diameter is about 3.1" http://www.subclub.org/minman/30045.htm . There are some third party tripod collar which is about 80mm width Click here to see on Ebay .

[Lloydy]

The problem is that it's just about impossible to find the right size mount, they are almost always listed for.a particular lens rather than by size. It's very frustrating , I've spent ages looking.
I have found one for this lens, when I get back to the man cave I'll post a picture of what I use.

No not this 300 lens, it's a 200 I was thinking of, too much wine at an early evening BBQ But I did struggle to find a tripod collar to fit the very heavy Rokkor QF 200 3.5, eventually I found an unbranded mount at the camera fair for a few pounds and used some 1/4" thick sticky back foam to make it fit, and it does a great job. I'll start a thread, I have a few that I've re-purposed.

[Teemō]

[Teemō]

[calvin83]

One cost as low as US $9.99 Click here to see on Ebay .

[Teemō]

[Boris_Akunin]

[cooltouch]

Alternatively, since this lens will be used on a mirrorless camera, I can recommend going with an adapter that has the tripod mount. I own two -- one for Canon FD and one for Nikon. They are very stoutly made and they work great. I'm thinking about ordering a few more, ones for Pentax K, Minolta MC/MD and also M42.

I also bought one of the adapters something like what's shown above. The one I bought was advertized to fit some Canon EF lens. I took a gamble and bought it to use with my Nikon 200mm Micro-Nikkor. It was quite a bit larger in diameter than what I needed, so I just folded up a paper towel and wrapped it around the lens, then clamped the mount down on it. Although this was a temporary solution, I've still got the paper towel folded up in there, mostly because it works adequately. One of these days I'll replace it with some more permanent material.

[Lloydy]

I've had two Fotodiox NEX adapters with tripod mounts, and the mount came off one of them - luckily I was holding the camera and lens. The tripod foot is held on to the adapter by two tiny screws that just stripped the thread out of the adapter.
The second adapter, the foot kept coming loose. so it also went in the bin. I just blanked the holes in the adapter and use them without the tripod foot.

To make an oversize coller fit I use the sticky back foam from a craft shop that comes in A4 sheets and 1.5mm thick, I found some 4mm thick as well, but haven't seen it in the craft shop recently. Ebay is bound to have it.

[Teemō]

Thank you Boris for the diagram and to others. Hopefully this thread will be useful for owners of the lens. I'm still waiting on the delivery of my MC lens but I think my initial assumptions about its quality were a bit harsh. Besides using it on my SRT and GM1, I've mainly bought it for a clearer and brighter view with my ocular converter.

[Boris_Akunin]

[Boris_Akunin]

A little update:

I played around with the padding and quickly found that compressible padding is a bad idea. The lens starts to wobble as soon as I loosen the collar a bit but there's still too much resistance to easily turn the lens.
Incompressible padding works a lot better, I'm just using a couple layers of paper (glued together with double-sided tape). Some sort of thin smooth plastic should work better.





I slipped a couple of rubber O-rings over the lens to keep the lens aligned, it's working alright but the rubber is causing a bit too much friction.




I'll post another update when I've found better materials.

[marcusBMG]

Check out my piece here:

http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/114-maintenance-repair-articles/238879-modding-chinese-other-tripod-mounts-fit-eg-adaptall-lenses.html

[cooltouch]

Thanks for that link! That table gives just the sort of information I've been searching for pertaining to those Chinese mounts. I have one that I bought for some Canon zoom that I've sort of adapted to work on my 200mm f/4 Micro-Nikkor. It is too big and, as a temporary method to get it to work at all, I used a wad of paper towels, wrapped around the lens. Too squishy, but it works . . . sort of. The solutions for gap filling discussed in that thread has given me some new ideas, though. I've got some sheets of cork around here somewhere . . .

Oh, and about the Chinese adapters for Sony's E-mount cameras and such: I have bought two, one in Nikon and one in Canon FD, and both have the tripod foot held onto the adapter with two philips screws. One thing I've learned the hard way when it comes to unknown metal that's probably cheap is not to overtighten screws. I checked them for snugness -- they were snug on one mount, but loose on the other. So I just snugged them down, but no further. So far, neither mount has required retightening of those screws.

[Gyles]

If you want some thin plastic, have a look at trimming down the caps from aerosol cans. Some have a decent diameter.