Ask any wildlife cameraman what their favourite item of kit is and you will probably receive a different answer each time. For some it is a lens, for others a tripod head, and for many it is a camera.
This is going back a few years to when the BBC NHU organised a series of HD courses for wildlife camera people. Akin to most courses, this one came with a pile of paper to take home and forget. There was one piece of paper that I still hang on to though, for sentimental reasons. It was a list of items that a cameraman might like to own personally, on the assumption that everything else would come from a hire shop. On the list was this little item: –
This is the Libec ZC 9 Pro. It is one of my favourite kit bits. It is simply a unit that clamps very firmly to a tripod handle, plugs into the zoom demand connection of most HD lenses (adaptors are available), and allows your tripod fingers to operate the zoom, on-off, and return functions of the camera and lens combination. There is a switch so that you can select either Canon or Fujinon lens operation. I think the price has remained around £160 for as long as I can recall. Now I have two of them, one of which only does the on-off bit, as I seem to have strained one of the intricately soldered wires at the connector end.
There are other zoom demands, but I have grown to like this little unit. When you are using a telephoto zoom in a rapidly changing situation it is a definite bonus not to have to remove your left hand from the focus ring. Removing then replacing that hand to change framing via the zoom ring or simply to re-find a subject almost inevitably causes unwanted vibration. In my experience it’s best to leave it there when subjects are moving around. It’s a different matter when the subject is stock still. The ZC 9 also prevents groping around for the on-off switch, which can save vital micro seconds at crucial times. £160 does seem a lot for a small switch, but it is extremely well made and well worth the money. I think the connector itself is called an 8-pin pro ENG connector, and I would like to find a supplier for one as I can see a soldering job coming up. I can’t blame the unit for failing, sometimes I forget that it is connected as I yank the camera off the tripod and the connector takes the full brunt of the tug… can’t be good for it!