That’s right, there are another set of legs inside the legs you see above (see below). Housed inside the carbon fiber legs are “flex” legs but not just flex legs. The can be screwed in place of the carbon fiber leg, or, they can be added to the carbon fiber legs. They are so strong they hold the Z 8 / Z14-24f2.8 wrapped around the head bar or strut of an airplane! They can do this without any scratches, no slippage and this is really important with aircraft and many other locals where you need to place a tripod. It’s brilliant, I love it! Just look below at how I attached the TablePod with a Z 8 / Z24-70f2.8 to the Tortoise. I really am heads over toes about this small yet powerful tool. I highly recommend it!

The Benro Mach3 Series 2 with the SmallRig Small Fluid video head is my dedicated tripod to the Z 9 / Z400f4.5 combo. I wanted a second, smaller tripod for landscapes and general video work. I had to look no further then the Benro line, their Tortoise Leveling Base #3 tripod with their VX30 Two Series Aluminum Ball Head. The Tortoise weighs in at only 2.8lbs but comes up to eyelevel. It has 1/4 accessory sockets all over the place. Legs can splay flat and with a push of a button, snap right back. It nests right in with the Mach3 in my luggage and compliments it perfectly. I love this new carbon fiber tripod too!

So, like many of you, I now have a number of tripods in the corner of the closet collecting dust now that I’ve updated but that’s ok. Lighter, sturdier tripods that solve my stability issues are a welcomed addition to the gear locker!

I thrive on being organized and Think Tank just made it a whole lot easier for me/us! They have just brought out their latest and best “all things” pouches, the EDC 20, 10 & 5. As seen above, I’m using the EDC 20 for all things travel computer. There were in one pouch prior so getting out one block or cable mean basically everything had to come out to get those two items. Not no more! The EDC 5 is the home of video mics and cables, all in one pouch now. And the EDC 10, well that’s my secret what I have organized in it. The beauty of the EDC is they can “mold” into where ever you store them for example, the EDC 20 slips into one compartment of my briefcase next to the iPad, the EDC 5 on top of the Z70-200f2.8 in the MP-3 V2 or Speedtop 15. Now I’m on a mission to organize even more so more EDC pouches are in route. Great stuff Think Tank … thank you!

My evolution in rigs for photographing flight has taken many forms over the decades. It started with a F3HP with a 400f5.6 EDIF w/TC-14 on a gunstock moving other lenses like the 80-400VR, 200-400 and then the spectacular 180-400VR. While all these rigs produced images I still love and cherish, they all but the first have one trait I did not enjoy. They are heavy. At the end of the day photographing birds on the wing or aircraft overhead, my arm and back are tired. That just goes with the joys of making images. Recently I made a huge change in large part because, I’m tired of tired arm and back. I was sad to see the 180-400vR go but man, I am one happy camper now at the end of a shoot and not just because of the images!

I’ve spent nearly an entire month shooting just the Z 8 / Z400f4.5 w/Z1.4x photographing birds and aircraft on the wing and my arm and back have never felt better nor my images making me more happy! More importantly my precentage of keepers has creeped up while my creativity went up a notch. The sharpness with this combo is off the charts but I already knew that. Why I think my creativity went up a notch is because I simplified my shooting by removing the zoom element. I spent some time looking at older images and I found a pattern where I wasn’t as tight on a subject as I might have been able to be as I was zoomed “back” rather than all the way out. Perhaps I didn’t want to commit, couldn’t zoom fast enough, combination of both, whatever it was is seemed to hold me back. Removing the zoom option, the light weight package, the blistering sharpness makes the Z 8 / Z400f4.5 w/Z1.4x my ultimate flight rig!

The Z 8 is a delightful, powerful, fun camera that I really have enjoyed getting to know this past two weeks. When I get any new piece of gear, I wed myself to it for the first couple of weeks to get to know all it has to offer and problems it solves in my visual storytelling. I got the Z 8 for one main task, wed to the Z400f4.5 for bird photography. As it turned out the first ten days, the Z 8 has spent 90% of its time attached to the Z600f4. But no matter what it’s attached to, the Z 8 performs beautifully. In fact, there is only one thing I’m not thrilled with. And that is it being called the Z 9‘s “little brother.” Being a little brother, I think the Z 8 is better than that!

Getting right to my thoughts, how does the Z 8 stack up against the Z 9? That’s the biggest question I had from the start. What is “given up” in the smaller, lighter Z 8 (compared to Z 9)? In all reality, the loss of GPS and smaller battery (which video does inhale) is basically it. Yes, there are some features added, one card slot is now a SD rather than CFexpress and one Fn button has been moved but other than that, the Z 8 is not a little brother but a stand alone mini giant! All that I have come to expect from the Z 9 I found in the Z 8. The AF performance, frames per second, programmable everything, killer EVF performance and most importantly, file quality are in the Z 8 as delivered by the Z 9. The only one feature I miss is the loss of the vertical firing button found on the taller, heaver Z 9. I think that’s the big attribute of the Z 8 that some of missed, its smaller and weight less than the Z 9 but with all the performance of the Z 9!

Many have asked if I “like” the Z 8. That’s a resounding YES! Some of asked if the “reduced” weather sealing is an issue? I had it out in the Alaskan rain getting nice and wet and it just kept clicking. So from that anecdotal evidence, I’d say no. One person asked what I feel is the most important question about the Z 8. What’s the shooting experience like? That’s very important to me and I was so pleased with the fun the Z 8 includes in its performance. Like I mentioned, the majority of the time it was connect to the Z600f4 while I was with the Kodiak Brown Bears. It made it easy to keep my attention on the bears, the story and not it. I need gear that doesn’t require my attention, just does it job and does it well. The one thing that took a little while to wrap my head around was the battery use shooting video. In that department, the Z 8 does not perform like the Z 9 but it shouldn’t. The Z 8’s battery is much smaller while producing the same video as the Z 9. I was disappointed in myself as it would seem that I didn’t take good care of my older ENEL15 batteries. They work just fine in the Z 8 but I had just left them in an uncharged state for the past year or more. They don’t want to hold a charge so I picked up new EN-EL15c and all is well.

Picking up the Z 8 and shooting with it was seamless as it is just a more compact, lighter Z 9. This includes its setting which for the most part are the same as those in the Z 9. I was actually not planning on doing any kind of video or field report since in my mind, the Z 8 is already proven as it is basically a Z 9. I’ll be honest with you, the interest in the Z 8 really has overwhelmed my inbox so I felt I needed to put some words to my thoughts. I can answer the #1 question now that I’ve been asked about the Z 8. Do I recommend the Z 8 or the Z 9? You want to save money, weight and size, the Z 8 rocks! You want all the bells and whistle and sex appeal, the Z 9 is your camera! I can tell ya that after this short time of 14k images, 10 days of intense shooting with the Z 8, my first thoughts are, this is one sweet camera that I’m so glad is now part of my kit.

And with that, I’m off for an air-to-air tonight with, yep, you guessed it, the Z 8!

My drive to find better, lighter gear brought me to my friends at Bedford Camera for their advice. Their recommendation, the Benro Mammoth TMTH44C with Wildlife Head was right on. Simply put, the Benro Mammoth TMTH44C with Wildlife Head is the finest tripod and head I have ever had the fun to take to the field, ever! I was needing a physically lighter and yet still solid platform for the Z 9 / Z600f4 that fits in my luggage, goes to my height, and is stable and smooth enough for stills and video panning. The pros and Bedfords said this would be the one and they are soooo right!

I’ll be honest, I will do a video to explain all the Cadillac performance this rig provides. It starts with its all-new carbon fiber legs. A tripod collar with 3/8″ attach points with a smaller quad while bringing the stability required for a big rig. The smoothness of the head, when you pan with its fluid design, is spectacular. Once set, you can leave the pan tension as you like and use a separate lever to tighten them down when you want to move. The list of innovations with this rig goes on and on but here’s one thing you’ll truly love. The price for this tripod and head is less than the price of most heads, alone! You’ll be hearing more from me about this amazing tripod and head, the amazing Benro Mammoth TMTH44C with Wildlife Head!