What Does LensBrace Do? + LensBrace vs. Monopod

Because LensBrace is an all new and innovative product, unlike anything before it, there are many misconceptions about what it actually does and what value it offers.

So here is the full explanation of what LensBrace does for handheld telephoto shooters that you cant get from any other product or technique.

Lensbrace creates leverage that corrects the balance of the camera kit to bring the overall weight bias into your bodys center of gravity. 

Leverage is simple and undeniable physics. This means that LensBrace immediately works for anyone that picks up the camera kit.

The design features of Lensbrace also make using your camera much more intuitive and confortable by placing your left hand and thumb exactly where they need to be.

Lets dive all the way into this to overexplain why this is necessary-

These lenses are heavy and difficult to handle lor long periods because the huge lens glass is in the extreme end of the tube, away from your body’s center of gravity. 

Feel free to look this up- Holding a weight out in front of you at arms length and away from the body's center of gravity is an actual form of torture called “stress and duress”. This is where a small group of muscles are tasked to produce a significant amount of torque for long durations to lift and hold a disant mass like your lens glass 

Striking the “Photographers stance” is usually required to create a wide triangle with a leg out and under the weight of the glass. This helps with stability but not with lifting or holding.

The left side of the body does all the work of lifting and supporting the camera kit. While the right arm only guides the viewfinder to the eye and fingers the controls.

Without LensBrace, there are 2 ways to hand hold the lens for shooting and reviewing. 

By the foot-This puts 100% of the weight of the kit on a pressure point in the palm of your hand and the meat of your thumb. The arm and hand are twisted awkwardly. Racking the zoom requires awkward thumb movements and multiple swipes to cover the entire range. 

Turning your hand around to use your index finger for zoom drives 100% of the kit’s weight into 2 even smaller and more sensitive points of the purlicue.

By the tube or zoom ring-The wrist and hand change into a more natural position, but multiple joints move to rotate the zoom.

Both of these holds contain the ingredients to fatigue and pain in the neck, back, shoulder and more. Both arms up high, close together with tight bends in small triangles holding a shrug for the duration of your engagement with the eyepiece.

This applies to anyone using a telephoto lens, but for many users, holding these positions gets painful quickly and leads to the dreaded “pinchy shoulder” which really does put a stop to artistic inspiration and creative drive. 

These ^ are the problems we set out to solve when we designed LensBrace.

Why not just thread a monopod into the lens foot and use it as a handle?

At first glance, this seems like the ultimate solution. And of course thats the first thing we tried.

Threading a monopod into the lens foot does create a handle, which IS better than no handle at all, but it introduces limitations in functionality and even worse ergonomics.

We are not suggesting you throw away your monopod in favor of LensBrace. Remember that LensBrace is specifically designed for run and gun handheld shooters. 

Instead we’ve embraced monopod users by creating an adapter for LensBrace that allows your monopod to mount in place of our grip handle to give you all the benefits that LensBrace offers and make your monopod experience much better!

Here’s why threading a monopod in for a handle causes more problems that it solves.

The balance point of the 200-600 and 400-800G lenses on an A7 series body is past the tip of the lens foot.

Any handle mounted behind the balance point keeps the lens front-heavy, and it becomes even more front-heavy as you move back toward the camera body.

A longer aftermarket lens foot may provide additional threaded ports to move your monopod forward to the balance point. But you’re still lifting and supporting the entire weight of the kit with your left arm.

We found that when the kit is perfectly balanced, it requires constant work from your forearm and wrist to keep it from falling… because now, the kit tends to fall off of the balance point in any direction it can. Like trying to stay balanced while standing on a large rubber ball.

A collapsed monopod is rigid. Resulting in direct and snappy handling, which can be even harder on your wrist. This rigidity also offers no impact resistance. If you set it down hard, the shock directly impacts your equipment.

Lens feet are also threaded down the center line which puts your monopod directly on the center line of your lens. This traps your thumb under the lens foot.

You can stick your thumb out, but it forces your forearms, wrist and hand into an awkward position to reach the zoom wheel, and you still can’t roll the full range of the zoom in one swipe without making contact with a pressure point. 

And lastly, the monopod is very close to your torso which creates a very tight triangle at the elbows, and a sharp bend at the wrist. Bringing the elbows in to support against the torso requires a tight squeeze,

The takeaway here is that threading a collapsed monopod into the lens foot does place a handle under the lens, but this does not reduce the effort required to lift or hold the lens, or relieve the user of bad ergonomics that cause fatigue and pain but instead it introduces even more with an extra helping of limited functionality

These ^ are additional problems that LensBrace solves

Now, let’s look at LensBrace’s design to see how it makes shooting comfortable and solves these problems.

The grip tube is strategically located forward of the balance point.

Which transforms it.

Not from front-heavy, to rear heavy, but to the perfect amount of rear bias.

As soon as you lift it, the front of the lens tilts up naturally and the total weight of the kit transfers backward and over both feet and into your body’s center of gravity. Now, your right arm can share the load with your left equally, and the viewfinder naturally comes to your eye.

With distance between the hands, handling is more natural for looking into the viewfinder and placing your subject in the viewfinder quickly.  Much like aiming a rifle.   

You no longer need to strike the photographer’s stance to use your kit since you’re no longer lifting a distant weight.

The left thumb is intentionally placed where it can freely rack the full range of the zoom in one swipe and reach the focus wheel and custom button without moving any other parts of the hand or loosening your grip.    

Compare the arm, elbow, and hand positions to a monopod. They’re comfortably extended, not tight. A large triangle allows you to stabilize your elbow against your torso without squeezing.

The grip tube is wrapped in comfortable ribbed ODI mushroom grips that allow air to circulate and prevent sweat.

The bottom grip has a thick padded end to absorb shock and impact, and the LensBrace base has a slight amount of flex built in. This acts as a shock absorption system for touchdown on objects.

The flex in the base has been engineered to provide a feeling of fluidity when handling the kit, reducing wrist shock.

The tube length was chosen as the best balance between comfortable holding up to the eye, resting on common surfaces like railings, shooting in common poses like sitting and kneeling, and camera bag fitment. 

The grip can be held anywhere on its length.

The base has smooth transitions between planes, eliminating pressure points for comfortable holding no matter where you place your fingers. 

The curved bridge allows full and natural articulation of the thumb, allowing it to access zoom and focus wheels and a custom button. 

The offset grip lets you fully rack the zoom range with one thumb movement, perfect for quick adjustments and smooth panning zooms.

 

LensBrace does hold and carry better than a monopod.

With the camera hanging at the length of the neck strap. The left hand rests on the grip with the arm extended and well within the elbow’s useable range of motion

Resting the extended and relaxed hand on the grip puts less weight on the strap for less strain on your neck and back. 

The lens is high off the ground and tucked next to your thigh while walking. For the fellas, the grip keeps the lens from swinging between the legs and bashing into the goodie bag.

With a monopod, hanging at the length of the neck strap, the handle is much higher up, so the elbow is bent significantly more which makes resting the arm on the grip less restful and puts more weight on the neck strap for more fatigue.

You can install a longer neck strap to get your arm straight but that places the camera closer to the ground and your knees when walking and makes lifting to the eye even more physical work.

The main issue here is that your elbow is above the middle of its range of motion, which is not comfortable and also involves the shoulder and makes lifting from a hold or carry more difficult with additional work being put in by the forearm and wrist to get the heavy glass tipped up.

Walking and hiking are better with LensBrace too.

The forward grip tube tilts the lens up, and places the camera at just the right distance to allow it to rest on your shoulder with minimal effort. 

The monopod is too far back, causing the lens to fall forward.

We particularly like the hug carry with fingers interlaced under the grip tube, or both hands stacked with the kit leaning against the torso.  The engineered flex in the LensBrace base and super soft bottom grip eliminating pressure points for all types of carry. 

Technically speaking- here’s what LensBrace is all about-

The current version “SONY 28” fits both the 200-600 AND 400-800.   

Adding weight to solve the issue of something being heavy would be lame. The entire lensbrace is very light at just 8.4 oz.

The base has been destruction tested. It can withstand 80 lbs of repeated load and bounce back to shape. At 101 lbs we were then able to break the one we repeatedly flexed to 80lbs. 

Consider that your kit is less than 9 lbs.

It is strongly recommended that you wear a helmet while attending any event where a LensBrace could get broken.

LensBrace is a lifetime product and 100% made in the USA here in San Diego.

LensBrace installs and removes from your lens foot in seconds with the included stainless steel hardware.

The grip tube is easily removable from the base which makes LensBrace break down small enough to fit in your camera bag.

To ensure that you never lose the hardware or the tool you need for the product-

There is a built in threaded port for storing the mounting bolt when it’s removed from the lens foot. 

The Allen key stores in the base and is secured with magnets. 

And the length of the tube clamp bolt was chosen so it only needs to loosen or tighten without ever having to fully remove it.

 

The material is PA12 Nylon manufactured in the MJF process. Engineering race car, off road, and motorcycle products in this process and material has been our main business for many years. 

This is industrial 3D manufacturing. Where we can design structures within a structure to get exactly what we want. Shapes, textures, and features like “engineered flex” are fully controllable. 

This is not injection molded plastic or consumer based filament printing. Each machine you see here is half a million dollars not including the infrastructure required to run them, or the years of learning curve to master the process.

We proudly stand behind LensBrace, which is built with the highest quality components and materials and is backed by world class personalized support.