Lens "Trilens" - wouldya...?

Lightmancer

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Sunny Frimley
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Bill Palmer
TriLens - The new way of changing your lenses

It reminds me of some of the contraptions for Leica over the years. The Benser Base and the Lens Carrier-M...

MP4 braided strap.jpg
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...This was mine,
 
You’d need a cowboy hat. :D It does look fast however. Might be interesting to have a few rear caps on a base in the bottom of a bag.
 
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A little bit of explanation. Walther Benser was a Leica employee. He was famous for travelling the world giving slide shows that illustrated what could be done with Leica bodies and lenses.

In later years he wrote a book called "My Life With The Leica" - an excellent read.

He also designed a couple of accessories...

Lovely camera, Bill, did the Benser base (sounds like something out of Star Wars) work any better than a jacket pocket?

This is the Lens Carrier M, on my MP4 .85. The Benser base was similar, but carried two lenses, one on either end of the baseplate. They are handy for travel, for short lenses. I got quite adroit with doing fast changes with mine.

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You’d need a cowboy hat. :D It does look fast however. Might be interesting to have a few rear caps on a base in the bottom of a bag.

Funnily enough, what you are describing did exist. I've seen them at camera fairs. Like all such cases they seem like a good idea but are not very flexible in use.

While I'm about it this is a Benser bag... modular in nature, the idea was you could easily reconfigure or load your bag with different kit for different photo shoots. It proves there's nothing new under the Sun!

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It looks interesting, but you need to have a lot of confidence in the base and in carrying your lenses openly. I have something similar to the TriLens (for two lenses - the Lens Kit by Peak Design) and frankly don't use it often because even though it is practical, it feels a bit risky to carry more unprotected gear than strictly necessary. However, it's faster to use than any bag and the item itself is well made and feels sturdy. Would I use it with M mount glass? Probably not ... But that's just me, I guess.

M.
 
I like reading Walther Benser's books- have two of his on Color photography. I can relate to the many cartoons that he puts in them.

I would not trust these "quick-draw" devices- many are cheaply constructed. There was a review on one such device a couple of years ago in which the Photographer destroyed a $4000 lens, one that he had borrowed.

I like the Nikon FB-5 case, where the lenses Bayonet into a baseplate in the case. Fast to change, and provides protection. Much like the Leica field case, which I also have.
 
Sorry, I realised too late that this was an old thread - I looked at the date, but not the year ;) But I still think contemplating this stuff is still worthwhile - for the very reason Brian has just pointed out.

I use bags and backpacks almost all of the time ... But maybe I'm overly cautious. The Leica field case sounds interesting ... I could have used one of these today; I would probably have changed lenses more often (i.e. as much as I first intended).

M.
 
This TriLens solution seems tricky; weird; but perhaps interesting. Carrying a pretty full bag with me it's always a hassle to change lenses without resorting to putting one down to the ground. Then again, the TriLens wastes quite a lot of space.
 
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