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Editor's note: This excerpt first appeared in photographer and author Harold Davis' recent Focal Press book, Photographing Flowers: Exploring Macro Photography with Harold Davis.
The closer you...
I'm not sure how much there is to say about a beanbag. They aren't very complex
devices, but I recently shot using the Kinesis "SafariSack" and here is a brief
report on what I found.
The "SafariSack" is a flat bag, about 10" x 16" which is (optionally)
filled with about 6lbs of small, hard plastic beads. It has adjustable side
straps which allow it to be used in a "A" configuration in which the inverted "V"
part of the "A" is the bag folded in half, and the crossbar of the "A" is the
side strap. This allows the bag to be raised slightly from a surface to cradle a
lens, or to be draped over a car window when shooting from a vehicle. The bag
also has a handle which can be extended to form a shoulder strap for easy
carrying.
I used the bag as a window support when shooting from the car on a recent trip
to Brigantine NWR in NJ. With lenses up to a 600/4 (and a 1.4TC) the beanbag
provided good support, allowing sharp exposures to be made down to about 1/90
second or so, sometimes even longer. That's pretty much all you can expect a
beanbag to do. Sharp exposures at slower shutter speeds with such long lenses are
tricky, even with a tripod.
The bag appears to be well made and has a single zipper so the bag can be
filled or emptied easily. It can also be used on top of a lens to damp out
vibrations (useful with long telephoto lenses), or as a ballast to stabilize a
small tripod or light stand.
Image at top of page: Egret, NJ. Canon EF600/4L + 1.4xTC, Sensia II
100, SafariSack beanbag support on car window. Copyright 1998, Robert M. Atkins All Rights Reserved
