A man's gotta know his limitations

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paulfish4570

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I am blessed to have come to a bittersweet conclusion: because of my neurological condition I am going to let go of my Bessa R. The rig simply is too light in weight for me to shoot well because of hand tremors.
I have been on new medication for a month that has hugely improved my overall physiological health. Fatigue is much lessened and vigor is much increased over the course. I have few or no legs seizures at night. Pain that accompanied fatigue is gone.
But, my hands are no better, and perhaps a bit degraded. I think that is where the chronic inflammatory demyelating polyneuropathy caused the most damage. CIDP causes the body's immune system to attack and "eat" nerve coverings, thus shortcircuiting signals from brain to body.
The short circuits also are largely related to posture of the body and position of extremities. In my case, when my hands reach 90 degrees in relation to my upper arms, elbows bent, tremors increase all the way to eye level. In my right hand, tremors increase down into the base of my thumb.
You can see, I think, the effect on shooting my 35s. The Bessa and FED are too light to dampen the tremors. My SLRs and Minolta A5 rangefinder (It is a tank) are sufficiently heavy to dampen the tremors enough to get measurably sharper photos. I spent a couple of hours this morning verifying this by closely studying my photos on-screen.
I think some of you will appreciate my citing a different gospel: "A man's gotta know his limitations" - Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry. :lol:
 
I hope you find a tool whose weight and shape allow you to feel more comfortable. What kind of slr do you use?

Kent
 
If you're a digital kind of guy - maybe consider moving to an olympus/pentax/sony DSLR? They all have image stabilization built in to the sensor so every lens is in effect stabilized.

the a900 for instance is a wonderful wonderful camera with more IQ than most people could ever need, and it takes all the old minolta primes and adds IS to them.
IS is extremely effective for people with hand tremors.

Of course if you're a film fan only, an SLR or a leica M would be good too - both weighty. The bessa R is very light in comparison to an m6 or similar..
 
One other consideration (and you may have already thought of this) is to use shorter focal length lenses. I was always taught that, in order to get the slowest handheld shutter speed with a particular focal length, you divide 1 by the focal length. So, the slowest handheld for a 100mm lens is 1/100th of a second. The slowest for a 28mm lens would be 1/28th of a second. Of course, this is just a guideline. Some people can shoot slower speeds and still get sharp images. Either way, I just wanted to bring it up.

I wish you the best with your condition and your photography.
 
If you can handle a Linhof Technika 70, you're welcome to mine. It needs love - and should be heavy enough to steady your hands. ;)
 
Sorry to hear about the difficulties but congrats on finding medication that mitigates the issue - even if somewhat.

A thought: since the tremors seem to be related to hand/arm positions, have you considered a camera you can hold at waist level? If medium format, these will also generally be a bit heavier. These don't need to be expensive to try out.
 
What about using the old string monopod trick? Just attach a cord to the tripod socket with a loop on the other end in which you place your foot (or feet) and pull the string taut to steady the camera.

Alternately, you might be able to fashion a weight that could be attached to the tripod socket - making the camera heavier and lowering the center of gravity.
 
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Sparrow wrote: "Hard luck, it's certainly a bugger getting old"

99 Y/O Daisy McFadden was recently quoted as saying,

"Don't fear old age. If you don't get old, you die young."
 
The whole point of the kit is light weight and handiness. Using a tripod or monopod would void that.
I also shoot an SP1000, ST605, and Minolta A5. All are measurably heavier. The A5 has the added bonus of a leaf shutter. Something about the ergos of the Pentax SP and Fujica dampens things nicely.
For example, My SP1000 weighs 21 ounces, a full 7 ounces more than the Bessa body. An M2 body, for another example, weighs 6.5 ounces more than the R ...
 
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I respect a man who knows and faces his limitations, many don't. My signiture used to say:
Just because I'm obsessive compulsive doesn't mean I'm not having a good time.
I meant it too.
Good luck.
 
I guess you're talking about all those times you don't want to use tripod...

For sure heavier equipment can be a lot of help... And faster film maybe? Grain is beautiful!

Good luck!

Cheers,

Juan
 
I wish you well. My brother has Parkinson's and has difficulty with many things so I have some understanding of your problems.
 
I have a tripod I use for SLR macro and such. 'T'would be a travesty to pin that butterfly-like Bessa to it. :)

I already use 200 asa and faster film to help defeat the shakes.
 
My old Canon Ftb would have been the answer it weighed about 2lbs and change :)

Maybe a Nikon F5 that thing sure is heavy too and fast as hell

Getting old sure is a pain but as some wise man already said it beats dying young :D
 
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