Rifle/Sniper Grips
 

A couple of months ago I managed to do something pretty painful to my shoulder that's going to take a long time to fix. This has made holding a heavy camera/lens combination more difficult and I've noticed that I'm nowhere near as steady as I'd like to be for slow shutter panning work. I've tried using a monopod but I just don't find it useful or comfortable.

I've kept my eye out for a decent sturdy rifle grip for a few years now but the injury made this more a priority. I'd nearly got to the point where I was resigned to fabricate something for myself when I came across a place in the US which makes what looks like the ideal product so I thought that I'd share this discovery.

The company is BushHawk http://www.bushhawk.com and whilst it's a pity that you can't find their camera supports in the UK, you can at least order from the website.

I wonder why these things seem to have either gone out of fashion over here or never really caught on in the first place. If anyone's interested I'll post my initial impressions once it arrives.

I have old wooden one that I use occasionally. I find that the main problem with them is using manual focus plus, keeping a finger on the exposure switch and holding the rifle mount all at once. It certinaly can be done but an extra hand would help.

They certainly have their fans in the States. Must be doing something right.

...have to be careful in crowds. Someone got shot by the cops as they thought he was a sniper. Read that years ago but it still sticks when I look at those things!

I was about to post a similar comment. A year or two ago a man in the UK was shot dead for carrying a 'shotgun' that turned out to be a chair/table leg in a plastic bag. And of course there is the Brazilian electrician who was shot dead by armed police who took him for a terrorist. All it takes is for a member of the public to mistake the item for a rifle, or a rocket launcher, report it to the police, and you are potentially in trouble.

In case you think armed police are rare, I left my house one morning to find 5 police cars, a large black van, uniformed police, and several armed police outside a house less than 100m away. Mind you, this is Luton. :)

There are a couple of Russian Zenith Photo Sniper outfits for sale on a (UK)popular on-line auction site; item numbers 110124936245 and 320112583183.
A lot of interesting engineering for the price, maybe?

Roger

Roger, I'd wondered about adapting one of these but they've started to go for collectors prices and they're not a patch on the BushHawk product, which has the advantage of a two-position shutter release button and a front handle.

The front handle should overcome the difficulties of supporting and firing the shutter with the same hand that other models might have.

I doubt I'll have any problems being mistaken for a terrorist using this at Old Warden.

ive found some good camera mounts, basic and simple and doesnt make u look dangerous..link

There is someone at Old Warden who goes airside who has one of these grips. I would be interested to hear in how you get on with it.

Ollie, there are three rifle grips airside that I can think of. Two of these are homemade (From the same source) plus there's my Kaiser grip that's a bit too flimsy to do the job properly. Fingers crossed that the BushHawk arrives before Saturday.