Anyone used a Lens Flipper

[ilzho]

I only have one camera body and I have been finding times that I wish I either had a second camera body with my other lens attached to it, or had my other lens readily available to switch out.

I was searching for something to help alleviate this issue for me and I ran across a 'Lens Flipper'.

Has anyone seen this or used it?

Do you have any thoughts or suggestions?

[link removed per forum guidelines]

[Waddizzle]

Looks like an efficient means to get your camera and lenses dirty.

[ilzho]

That's exactly what I thought, even with the caps that you can get.

[Tronhard]

I am perhaps fixated on not getting dirt into my camera bodies or lenses.  For that reason I try never to  change lenses in the field, and I prefer to have a body for each lens that I am using.  I usually carry two bodies and maybe have a third lens in reserve that I can change under more clinical conditions. 

If you have just the one body I recommend the folloiwng procedures:

1.  Make sure the lenses are clean to begin with, especially make sure the glass that sits within the body is clean for the lens to be attached.  Leave the lens caps on both ends of the spare lens until the last possible moment.

2.  Be in a sheltered spot or stand to keep the wind and associated dust away from your gear.

3.  Make sure that the front lens caps are bothin place - this is to try to seal the lens as much as possible. I have even changed lenses inside clear plastic bags to protect them.  By the same token I lock lenses that can do so (such as the 70-300mm lens or the 28-300 lens) to stop them extending and sucking in rubbish. With some lenses, especially those push-pull are particularly susceptible to the bellows effect.

4.  I make sure the camera electronics are turned off.  Powered sensors attract dust into the body.

5.  Make the change quickly and especiially make the switch to keep the body connection unsealed for as short a time as possible.

6. Don't drop anything!  🙂

[kvbarkley]

There was a still camera in my "100 cameras book"  that you held like an old-school 8mm film camera (i.e., it had a pistol grip). It had a wide angle, a normal, and a telephoto lens on a turret that you could rotate.

It looked really awkard and over-balanced, probably because it was awkard and overbalanced.

[ebiggs1]

Two things.

One, use your gear. Don't be fixated on the conditions or you will never get the great shots.

Two, use common since.

Canon offers C&C so if the need arises make use of it.

[Waddizzle]

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@ebiggs1 wrote:

Two things.

One, use your gear. Don't be fixated on the conditions or you will never get the great shots.

Two, use common sense.

Canon offers C&C so if the need arises make use of it.

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The moderators took the link down.  But, from what I recall about how the product looked, it was sort of a over the shoulder sling that could hold a spare lens by a special end cap, which had a bayonnet mount.. The end cap had a double mount, so that you could attach two lenses at the same time.

Imagine a doughnut with a barrier in the center of the hole, so that nothing could pass through it.  It sort of looked like an extender that could hold a lens at either end, back to back.  This attached to a sling that went over your shoulder, or around your waist.  I can't remember which.  Maybe it attached to your belt(?).

The idea was that you when you unmounted a lens, you would mount it on the open side of the bayonnet cap thingy, remove the second lens from the other side, and attach it to the camera.  While it could hold two lenses at once, the intent was to only carry a single mounted lens, which would hang pointing at the ground. 

The problem with this gadget was that the unused mount was just open to the air, free to collect dirt like an open cup.  It didn't seem to include a body capy to cover the open end.  A cap ran counter to the design intent, which was to avoid lens and body caps altogether.

Like I said.  It looked like a very efficient means to get your gear dirty.  It didn't pass the common sense test.

[EDIT]  I just noticed something like it at my favorite online store.  GoWing Lens Flipper.  They have a hands-on review and a video.  The reviewer seemed to like it.  Obviously, I don't.

[Tronhard]

From what I can see the lens flipper is essentially a tube with each end having a camera body bayonet mount for a lens.  It seems to be an attempt to allow you to place the lens on a sling while you are changing betweens lenses. 

So I think the theory is that one would initially have a spare  lens on one bayoneted end with the other end covered by a body cap. 

When you want to change lenses you remove the body cap, take the lens off the camea body and attach it to the open end of the Lens Flipper.  You then remove the replacement lens, which is hanging off the othe end of the lens flipper and attach it to the camera, afterwards covering the  now open end of the lens flipper with the body cap.

To me the only benefit of such a systems is that it reduces the chance of you dropping the lens while juggling the lenses as you change them, but frankly I have never had that issue.   Further more if the lens flipper is on a sling it will drastically alter the centre of gravity of the whole contraption and could cause it to swing wildly, especially if heavy lenses are involved.

In both the conventional and Lens Flipper methods there will be a period when both the body and the lens are open to the air, so I am not sure I would have a use for the device.  I would rather keep the money and save up to get a second body...

[Waddizzle]

"To me the only benefit of such a systems is that it reduces the chance of you dropping the lens while juggling the lenses as you change them, but frankly I have never had that issue.   Further more if the lens flipper is on a sling it will drastically alter the centre of gravity of the whole contraption and could cause it to swing wildly, especially if heavy lenses are involved."

I like to carry two bodies, too.  I find having a hard camera bumping off my hip, just a bit uncomfortable, like you would with a Black Rapid Sport Strap..  So, I use a very well padded holster, which is large enough to hold a pro-size DSLR, with a 70-200 f/2.8 attached, with tripod foot, and with the hood reversed, to carry the spare camera.

I do use a Black Rapid Strap, for safety reasons, on the handheld camera, while the spare is in the holster.  The strap is much better than the standard Canon strap.  And, it also frees my hands to swap cameras.  It ain't the fastest system, but it works, and it is comfortable.. 

[Tronhard]

I think we are singing fromt the same song book! 🙂

I too carry a holster big enough to carry my largerst lens and body, I must admit I like to live on the edge as I don't have any kind of strap attached to my camera while using it.  So far in 35 years I have not dropped one yet! Although I realize I am tempting the camera gods to punish me for that remark!

So far that method has protected my gear from getting any noticeable dirt into my camera body - well as far as allowed by the bellows effect of my 28-300 push-pull lens.