frankraney Loc: Clovis, Ca.

I know what you mean. I keep changing the focus point my right hand here of thumb. My lens switches is close to the body on my 55-200, so no problem on them.

I don't like the tape ideas. How about a piece of paper wrapped around with a rubber band?

nadelewitz Loc: Ithaca NY

Shame on Nikon!.

User ID

I have actually glued switches ... to prevent tampering,
household type, not on a lens :-(

The heavy rubber bands DO work. They might seem
expensive at about $5 for a rubber band, but they do
actually earn their keep. Tape also works.

No offense intended, but I suggest you also work on
the awareness thing. OK, VR is not noticeable by eye,
but OOF ? Not seeing the AF activation and "OK" LED ?

Answers like "hectic action subjects", and "pressure
situation" will NOT fly. It's only pictures, or at most it's
only money. IOW, think of firefighters or combat GIs.
Hectic ? Pressure ? Yup, and life or death. People learn
to keep all the ducks in a row even under really trying
conditions. You are people, right ? You can do it.

One other thing that I do quite a bit of ... I increase
the visibility of control markings to avoid failures to
notice whether they have changed. I use nail polish,
in bold basic colors ... the cheapest, about $1 each.
Example:

tomcat

When my granddaughter starts flying on the parallel bars and I start shooting, it's all that I can do to keep the AF target focus on her and keep her in focus. The routine is over in about 1-2 mins, so there's no time for chimping. I can't take my eye off of her long enough to hunt around the viewfinder looking for a green light. What I usually do is to turn on the beep so that I can hear if focus is locked. But that doesn't work in AF-C, so I have to rely on the camera auto-focusing on it's own. But it won't happen again because I got some gaffer tape and taped it down for now. Thanks for the reply, though. :))

cambriaman Loc: Central CA Coast

That's what gaffer tape was invented for!

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

Any tape, especially the Gorillas, will leave a sticky residue on the lens that will attract dust and crud. Might you work on training your fingers, as the easiest solution. Putting wide rubber bands on will protect the buttons, but won't those pesky fingers have something else to hassle.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Does this happen often? I've moved a lens switch by accident a few times over the years but it's so infrequent that it's not really an issue. If its happening a lot you may have to consider reviewing your camera and lens holding technique. I've never heard of this being a significant issue.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

Just check your lens settings before shooting, just like the camera before starting it up and keep the fingers away from the swithches, that should be a very easy thing to to! I never have my fingers near the switches when shooting! The only fingers that are always in place, are my thumb for the focus and one finger working the zoom ring!

User ID

Gaffer's tape is not just "any tape". If tape leaves sticky
residue all over a set, the best boy will have an unusual
problem cleaning up after his gaffer.

If a tape leaves sticky residue, it's not real gaffer's tape.


.

User ID

Just wanna say "Amen" to your recommended
choice of tape ... cuz reading the whole rest of
the thread, folks hereabouts seem to not know
shinola about tape :-(

FWIW, if you leave gaffer's tape to bake in the
summer sun for a few seasons, it will leave a
hardened white cement-like residue. I did use
it to permanently weather seal a truck cap but
then I chose to remove the cap when I junked
the truck ....

.

tomcat

It has nothing to do with a "holding technique" when I'm shooting. The lens rests in the palm of my hand. The switches never get moved while I am shooting. It's when I am through shooting a particular gymnastics routine, rest up, and then go to the next routine. While I am holding, transporting and moving my heavy camera and lens around, my fingers, thumb, palm, whatever brush up against the switches and move them. The 70-200mm lens is 3.2 lb and the D3s is about 3.1 lb, so together I am holding and wielding about 6.3 lb and sometimes this involves cradling the lens while my arms are resting or walking around. When I lay the system down for a rest and then pick it back up, there is a chance that I hit a switch. I also shoot with a 200-500mm lens that never gives me a problem with the switches and their layout, so I am thinking that the 70-200mm lens is not ergonomically designed for me.

tomcat

You should try hand holding 6.3 lb of camera and lens for 3 hours of gymnastic exercise routines and you might find that you have to occasionally set the thing down to rest. When I pick it back up, I must be hitting those switches with my fingers because I have great technique while holding the beast during shooting. The lens barrel rests in the palm of my hand so I'm not moving them while shooting. It's the incidental contact while resting. Thanks for your suggestions though

tomcat

Leitz Loc: Solms

This sounds different from your original post, from which I understood you were accidently moving the switches while shooting. Since you now say that is not the case I have to wonder, what is physically preventing you from resetting them when you start shooting again?

tomcat

Nothing physically is preventing me, ha. Just too many MRIs in the past couple of years I suppose is making me scatter-brained. In my earlier post, I guess when I said "moving switches while shooting", I was referring to the entire action of picking up the camera/lens, holding it to my eye, then stopping while waiting for my granddaughter to start, and then resting my arms between sets. So somewhere along the way, I am moving them. So I could indeed check them if I physically would go through the act of reviewing them before shooting, but again, I'm not sure when this actually occurs. As several posters have pointed out, it is aggravating that Nikon would design them to be so easily moved. I have a Sigma and Tamron and both of these lenses have more resistant switches. On some occasion, I have noticed that my shutter speed is moved from 1/500 to 1/640, so my fingers do move all over when I am holding this beastly rig. It's just a combination of the ungainly center of gravity and me. So I need the physical restrains from moving these switches and I think the gaffer tape will help right now. I ordered some of those large rubber bands and I'll try those. Thanks for your suggestions and concern; I do appreciate them.