Tanzania: Reviews Part 2

Continued from my previous post, here are some more equipment reviews from Africa.

Kirk Window Mount & Wimberley Sidekick (or other gimbal head mounts) - ?
I’m reviewing this even though I never got the setup for my trip. Before I left, I seriously considered, putting together a window mount + ballhead + gimbal head rig that would have allowed me to attach my camera to the safari vehicle roof rails or side windows and have fluid motion around the camera/lens center of gravity. I researched all the parts and pieces and it would’ve been close to $1000 to purchase. Ouch. Good thing I decided to just use bean bags to support my cameras because that’s all we needed. We took our own bean bags but never used them because our excellent guide had bean bags already for us to use. I’m sure the gimbal head rig is very cool, but think about this…how will you switch from one side of the vehicle to the other? The animals are always moving and you certainly don’t want to reposition a complicated window mount rig when a lion crosses from one side of the road to the other. It was enough work moving bean bags with a big camera/lens in one hand. Forget the gimbal head for Tanzania (unless you get two for each side). Other African countries like Botswana will be a different story since they use open safari vehicles.

Better Beamer Flash X-Tender - B+
This device attaches to your flash to extend it’s range. It’s useful for filling in dark shadows on wildlife during harsh midday light. It works…a little too well in my experience. It definitely extends the flash’s reach and greatly magnifies the intensity at close distances. You have to be careful to set your Flash compensation correctly or your subject will have a paparazzi look (I had mine at -3 stops much of the time!)  Also be careful not to leave the Better Beamer out in the sun unattended. It WILL burn a hole in whatever is in the path of it’s fresnel lens :)

Nikon TC-14EII (1.4x) Teleconverter - C-
This one confuses me. From all the reviews I’ve read, I should’ve been able to use this to extend the range of my Nikon 200-400mm f/4 VR lens without very much optical degradation. I got mixed results. Some shots, mostly the ones where the subject is closer to the camera, are fine…very sharp. But other shots are hazy and blurry to the point of making the photos totally unacceptable. I can’t seem to find any factor that may have caused this. Do any of you more experienced photographers out there know what the problem might have been? Half-way through the trip I removed the teleconverter and didn’t miss it. With the D300 and 200-400mm, I still had a maximum reach of 600mm which was fine for most things.