My coworker has an absolutely huge passion for photography, he’s the type of guy who couldn’t wait for the workday to be over just to head out with his cameras and drones and take pictures (and his pictures are not less than breathtaking) and has been for years.
Sadly, a little over a year ago on his way to work a drunk driver swerved into his lane, and crashed into his car head-on.
He broke both of his hands and wrists (probably due to the airbags) and undergone several surgeries and he hasn’t been able to hold a camera since. He has been in physiotherapy since but he isn’t a young bloke (roughly 55 - 57) and recovery takes a good while.
A full frame camera is simply too heavy for him to hold, and his hands are shaking aggressively.
Seems like a solution would have to be a combination of taking the load off his hands and stabilization for the shakiness.
I would love to hear suggestions and advice from the wise people here.
Edit: I forgot to mention he mostly films wild life, he can lay down and hide in a bush for literally hours waiting for a certain animal.
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i can’t speak for a method of supporting the camera in his hands, but look into systems with both in body image stabilization AND in lens stabilization. I’m kind of surprised by the shutter speeds with which I can get sharp shots. i have a nikon z5 with in body stabilization and carry a lens with stabilization too. i don’t have a physical disability, but i’m a bit jittery and have noticed a big improvement.
a full frame mirrorless may be a bit heavy, but to my knowledge, olympus and other micro 4/3 systems have very light cameras and lenses with stabilization that are typically marketed to adventure and wildlife photographers who don’t want to carry a ton of weight in their backcountry packs. the 2x crop factor can be great for wildlife since you can get huge reach with smaller lenses. the low light capability is the primary sacrifice with these lightweight 2x crop cameras, but i’m of the mind that a well-composed shot is good whether there’s a little noise or not, and high iso noise can be repaired to some degree with software.
Most of the answers for the wildlife side seem covered.
For landscapes I’m going to go slightly outside the box. I use a dji pocket for ease when I’m out and about and want to travel light. The image stabilisation is very good, good for panorama images, video abs time-lapse. And it’s small and I find it fun. Just a thought.
Might some of these filming equipment for holding heavy cameras for hours, just to take of the weight of his camera?
Back in the view camera days, everything was tripod mounted and remotely triggered anyway. If he’s using a gimbal or a Wimberley Sidekick kind of telephoto mount, that’s taking all the weight off your hands…
They make some light bodied mirroless cameras and lighter lenses. But I’d go tripod and remote shutter via cell phone or what not.
Really depends on how he wants to approach it, in being a victim myself to a vehicular impact, it wasn’t until 3-4 months later that I had the interest let alone the energy to get back into hobbies I once enjoyed (and I did not undergo any surgery) but had bodily trauma. What is your friend’s energy level? Sometimes people like to leave things as they remembered it instead of getting flustered (I know if I couldn’t hold a 10lb lens and couldn’t get the focal shot I wanted, I’d get more aggravated than having fun).
He should get the newest iPhone. Light and very capable.
Maybe a remote controlled gimbal mounted on to tripod with a remote trigger?
Asp-c sensor camera with ibis could be great! I like fujifilm, they also have physical duals which might be easier for him to operate.
Look at Cotton Carrier, they make a chest rig that you can mount your camera on that holds a 400-600mm lens and you can adjust it to your eye level and it will stay. Also they are a small company and you might be able to ask them to make a custom one for your disability.
A monopod would be a great help - you can get a basic Amazon one for like €20 that telescopes down to about 2ft long, has a grippy foam handle and extends to about 6ft. I use it when I need some extra stability, but don’t want to carry around a bulky tripod or I need more mobility. It only takes a second to set up so it won’t interfere too much with his workflow.
One of the best cheap upgrades you can make… The difference between my nice lens that doesn’t have stabilisation and an equivalent that does is a lot more than €20!
A monopod might be a good idea, so that he can control the camera while not having to cop the weight of it.
Oh, and I shoot with a Nikon 1 J5 camera and the Nikon 1 70-300mm lens with optical stabilizer. The whole package weighs about 2lbs and goes up to 810mm equivalent. I have a joint problem, that extends to my hands… I can’t heft huge lenses.
This camera package cost about $1k total and the lens is insanely good.
Here’s a shot I took at 810mm equivalent.
If he’s in the UK, he might be interested in checking out the Disabled Photographers’ Society. It’s a charity run by disabled photographers to help make photography accessible for disabled people.
If he’s from elsewhere, unfortunately they aren’t able to accept members outside of the UK, but their website might be a useful starting point to get some ideas of what kind of adaptations are out there. Link below specifically to the page on adaptations. Might be worth seeing if there’s any similar charities or groups in your own country/area too.
A tripod plus a remote trigger like a CamRanger that will let you see the composition and adjust the exposure would be the ticket here. Regardless of the camera size, any camera will get heavy and be hard to hold still with his history.
For someone shooting wildlife, I suspect just getting into the field and finding a good position is more than half the battle for someone with mobility challenges.
There’s also other genres he could shoot indoors with the camera mounted, like product photography or macros even that might be more accessible to him, if he can learn to appreciate another genre.
