Weight of Hot Shoe Grip Left for Pentax 67II Camera?

After a long wait I will finally be purchasing a Pentax 67II camera within the

next 2 months..

 

I am interested in the weight, in grams, of the accessory Hot Shoe Grip Left for

the 67II body..

 

Is any PN member able to furnish me with this information?..

 

If so, it will be much appreciated..

 

I will be using this camera for street photography, in addition to landscape &

architectural photography..

 

I am well aware of the 67II's limitations for hand-held photography, having read

hundreds upon hundreds of posts here on PN..

 

Nevertheless, I will attempt some black & white street photography with my new

acquisition..

 

Any thoughts on how the accessory grip might improve hand-held photography?..

 

The smc-Pentax 67 45mm f4 & smc-Pentax 67 55mm f4 lenses have sterling

reputations for optical quality; with the 55mm f4 perhaps getting the nod in

overall quality..

 

For those members with experience with the Pentax 67II camera, which lens would

you choose to use for street photography?..

 

The 45mm f4 lens or the 55mm f4 lens?..

 

Thanks in advance for any & all answers!!..

 

Bruce

Pentax 67 body with pentaprism = 1810 g. - 45mm F4.0 = 485 g. - 55mm F4.0 = 725g. - Handle (only a guess) ~ 300 g. That's about all I can offer. I use a Mamiya RB67 Pro S, which makes the Pentax feel like P&S weight. :-) . I leave it to the pros here to reccommend a street sweeper. I use a 45mm on the Mamiya (also 6x7) and it suits me. I'm more a wide angle guy, from 35mm & digital beginnings. Happy shooting to be. Jim M.

The accesory hand grip makes a difference on the older P67 for handheld work but since the 67II has a built in right side grip, the addition of a left side grip doesn't seem like a big improvement (unless you want to do a lot of flash work). I have done several thousand frames with the old 67 hadheld and no grip with good success. The 67II with the built in grip was needed however for ease of handling.

 

I feel the 55-100 zoom is as sharp as the 55 f/4.

I like the 67II built-in sidegrip giving a very secure right-side hold on the camera. IMO the left-side accessory grip will be an impediment in hand-held use, getting in your way of adjusting focus and lens opening. I agree the reason for this grip on a 67II is for the flash shoe.

 

I have the 45 (485g) and a couple versions of the 55 (615g & 725g), plus more recently the 55-100 f4.5. At 1210g the zoom is heavier and bulkier than I feel comfy carrying very far. My suggestion for street shots would be the faster 2.8/75mm, the 2.8/90mm, or the 2.4/105mm. I've become very fond of that excellent 75 (560g)... but the 480g 90mm is most compact. To choose the 45mm (89-deg angle of view) or 55mm (77-78 deg), you'd have to prefer quite a wide view... of course this can be useful. I find the 75's 61-deg very versatile, like about 36mm on the 135 format. Any of these lenses can give you outstanding results.

The grip seems to add a little more in terms of overall bulk than it does in weight.

 

I hope you enjoy the 67II for street work. I've been shooting with mine over the past few months with the latest 55mm f4. Hand held shooting with it has never been an issue. It is an absolute dream to use.

 

Some pictures: http://www.johnsypal.com/view/movingon

For hand held photog. with my Pentax 67 (not II, however, an older model), I found out that the left hand grip was absolutely mandatory ; Why ?

 

I did my first rolls without it, and almost all my views were affected by (more or less) camera shacking (even at higher taking speeds). Examining the issue with great care, I noticed that the shacking was actually mostly HORIZONTAL, which meant that it was not caused by the mirror but rather by the start and stop vibrations of the large focal plane shutter.

 

Thus, I tried to use the left hand grip that I first discarded, and all these problems almost vanished even when shooting at 1/30 (with my 75mm lens). It seems that the left hand grip is very well designed to cancel the horizontal rotational vibrations that the focal plane shutter shocks induces when you hold the camera alone.

 

As for the choice of a lens for street photog. personally I would not opt for a too short focal, because then you would have to shoot very near your subject and with such a big - and noisy - camera it could be felt very aggressive :). Moreover in my opinion, very short lenses mandate more dramatic scening, which is maybe more difficult to improvise on the spot ; personally I would prefer a modest wide angle, like a 75mm. But it's your choice...

 

cordially, Paul

The handgrip on the 67II seems to always be in the way, making lens adjustments and focusing much more difficult. I don't recommend it unless you need it for flash work.

 

For street photography, I utilize the 75mm/2.8.

 

Good luck and happy shooting!

Thanks for all the answers!..

 

I'll forgo the left side grip for the 67II based on the above recommendations..

 

I've been toying with the idea of the 75mm f2.8 AL lens, but so little has been written about this lens on the net that I was unsure about choosing it over the 55mm f4 (my first choice after much reading & contemplation)..

 

Based on the above comments from Mssrs. Miles, Kopff, & Yarbrough I am now going to purchase the 75mm f2.8 lens as my first lens..

 

The 55-100mm f4.5 zoom lens is very tempting..But, it's 1210g weight versus the lesser weights of the 45mm f4 (486g) (724g heavier), the 55mm f4 (725g) (485g heavier), the 75mm f2.8 (560g) (650g heavier), & the 90mm f2.8 (485g) (725g heavier) tends to rule out for me what I'm sure is an optically superlative, versatile lens..

 

With both of the 67 zooms on one's person, a photographer would be prepared for virtually any street photography situation except for the ultra wide angle shots covered by the 45mm f4 lens & the 35mm f4.5 Fish-Eye lens..

 

It is the combined weight of 2370g, a total of 5.22 lbs., that is preventing me from seriously considering the zooms..

 

I understand from Mr. Rasmussen's posts that he is very fond of these lenses..

 

I'm curious as to how others might feel about the 55-100mm & 90-180mm zooms?..

 

Thanks again!!..

 

Any further comments & recommendations will be gladly accepted..

 

Bruce

HI Bruce -- Looks like a good plan to me! :-)

 

My impression is that the Pentax medium-format zooms have a few niches in photography where they are particularly useful. One of these is landscape work, where one other attribute of the zooms is attractive: That they tend to have smaller f/stops available than fixed focal length lenses. The 55-100 stops down to f/32 (the 2.8/75 goes to f/22), and I think the 90-180 gets down to f/45. There would be some degradation from diffraction effects I think at these small stops, but that may well be acceptable in exchange for the advantage in depth of field. On a tripod, the bulk and weight of the zoom is more manageable, and the variable focal length aids careful composition.

I shoot with the 55mm and the 90mm 2.8-- I can't justify it for myself now, but starting out with the 75mm would be the best way to go. It has the compactness of the 90mm- making it about half the size of the 55- and is just wide enough. Enjoy it!

The Pentax 75mm f/2.8 AL is one of the last lenses designed for the P67 system, introduced in 2001. Lighter, faster, and more compact than the previous f/4.5 lens due to improvements in lens technology over the years, it incorporates one aspherical element, and is said to have one element that moves during focus to optimize performance at different distances. It focuses unusually close, at 1.35 ft (.41m), for a .36x magnification without accessories. It has slight barrel distortion, detectable only in compositions with straight lines running near and parallel with the picture edges. I wish it didn't, but its other attributes are so compelling that it's still my favorite 67 system lens. It uses the same 67mm filter thread as many other mid-range P67 lenses.

Thanks for all the answers!!..

 

You've removed any doubts that I had regarding the 75mm f2.8 AL lens..