Tripod support ring for Lumix 100-300mm lens

Wednesday 30 January 2019 at 04:34 am

Home-made solution for a tripod support ring for my Panasonic Lumix 100-300mm lens HFS100300.  My camera body is the tiny GM-5 so it already looks ridiculous with a big lens, and there was never any chance of it working properly on a tripod.

There doesn't seem to be a genuine Panasonic unit, and the only other one I found was a bespoke German-made one which is really expensive, as well as being quite difficult to source. Yeah, it looks lovely and doesn't need a screwdriver to fit, but the look of the thing isn't really an issue, and I'm a cheapskate, so I thought I'd try to make my own.  I toyed with the idea of buying a ring for another camera and modifying that, but this is way cheaper!

Based on a 67mm Munsen ring (I learned a new thing - a Munsen ring is a pipe clip/support commonly used in construction, and this one's threaded mount is usually connected to Unistrut in a building by a threaded bar).  It comes with a rubber cushion which is a bit bulky so I binned that.  Cost me a couple of quid off eBay, but you may even find cheaper at your local plumbing store.

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First I Dremeled a hole for the lens' image stabilisation switch. 

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Then bolted on an aluminium plate.  Originally I was going to drill and tap the tripod mount hole, but I found a brass insert from an old action-cam mount and press-fitted it in (carefully drill the right-sized hole then squeeze in a vice to force the insert through). 

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To protect the lens I used heatshrink on the top (again, cutting a hole through for the switch).  I found I'd run out of the right-sized heatshrink for the bottom so I glued in a strip of scrap leather

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Fitting to the camera - had to be careful not to squeeze it too hard as it makes the zoom ring stiff to turn, so I experimented with different washer thicknesses to give the perfect grip without affecting operation.  Finally a bit of work on the grinding wheel to round off the corners of the bar.

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More by luck than judgement the balance is now pretty much perfect, so now I've no excuse not to go out for some fancy wildlife pics.