Tripod colar for Nikon 80-200mm 2.8

A few days ago I finally purchased a gordgeous used Nikon 80-200mm 2.8

lens (push and pull type) and although I am very pleased with it´s

quality I´was surprised because there was no suport for attaching this

heavy lens to my tripod. Is it possible to connect it to my tripod

without an appropriate support?

Thanx for any help.

Sergio Leal.

Hello Sergio

This has always been a contentious area, with Nikon claiming that the pro shooters this lens was made for did not want a tripod collar. Only the last ever version of this excellent lens had a tripod collar, so before then a small industry rose up with people making supports. Kirk and F&L designed supports that attach to the front of the lens and to the camera body - I have one of these (Kirk) and I am happy with it. Now that Nikon have moved on to the tripod mount version and then the 70-200 VS lens, there should be plenty of these older supports saround at good prices. These are no longer made new so you will have to scan e*ay for one. Also Bogen/Manfrottomake a generic support:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=126662&is=REG

I would not want to hang an 80-200 attached to a camera body off a tripod when it was the body mounted on the tripod. Even if the lens mount can stand the weight, there will be enough flex in the system to allow the end of the lens to move, no matter how tightly the tripod is connected to the body. I am much happier attaching the Kirk product to my tripod head and letting the camera body hang unsupported.

Note that the optical quality of the Nikkor 80-200 f2.8 was always excellent, and unequalled, whatever the tripod support built into, or not built into the lens.

Regards, Ross

I just found a Kirk bracket for the 80-200. It took awhile. I kept an eye on E-Bay and other classifieds (like on photo.net and nikonians, etc.)

Works good and I agree that you'd have a difficult time balancing this on a tripod witout the bracket...

Although, I've noticed that the cost of the tripod version of this lens has come down in recent months (ebay)..

matt

"Is it possible to connect it to my tripod without an appropriate support?"

There is no tripod collar for the 80-200 f/2.8 push-pull lens. You must buy the later

AFD tripod version, or the AFS, that also has a tripod collar. The earlier versions, like

yours, is not made to take a tripod collar, thus there is nowhere to attach it.