I was going on that exchange too. Presumably making it look like an accessory for mall ninjas and Meal Team 7 was the designers’ idea.
Quite. And it provides a gold-plated excuse for gun-toting bozos who think you’re not allowed to take their photograph in public.
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What a super stupid idea.
I ended up with the Leica version for their SLR cameras in a bag of odds and ends for use with their long Telyt lenses that you focus trombone style, sliding in and out. Even with the magic of modern image stabilization techniques, long, heavy lenses are tricky.
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A few birders have been using these under their spotting scopes (often DIY), for 30+ years that I know of. It took some real skill to use one at more than 10x or 12x mag then – image stabilization didn’t exist – but the shoulder set helps. (So does not using caffeine or nicotine, just sayin.')
There are also some scope mounts that quickly clip onto the top edge of a car window, and I’ve seen photogs using them.
I’m using something similar to take pictures of the President from a long way away. I think the pics are going to turn out great… Hey, there are some well-dressed gentlemen in sunglasses walking towards me. I’ll bet they want to know all about my cool photography setup… “Hi Guys! Are you interested in this…”
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Ugh - too much trouble. Then I have to calculate the wind velocity.
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There are apps for that.
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Don’t see why it wouldn’t work, given that a rifle stock makes a rifle more accurate
though the balance might be wayoff. I’d rather not experiment with how it looks to other people.
Although I can’t recommend using this anywhere but in the great outdoors and away from the public because I will yell, “He has a missile launcher!” if I ever see anybody with one.
It looks like a missile launcher regardless of where it’s being used. Why would it be ok to shoot down planes in one place but not another?
For all you Northern Exposure fans:
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I think this is a silly idea though at the same time, stabilizing a rifle works so why wouldn’t the same thing work for a camera?
Also, put me in the “I love northern exposure” camp, except for that last season or two after Joel left and they adding two annoying yuppies in his place. That was a shark jumping for sure.
I recall that the show was decently progressive and interesting. In addition to things others have mentioned here, Cicely was founded by lesbians. The show was a great quirky character comedy. Good recurring guests too. I particularly remember Adam Arkin as misanthropic Adam; Adam Ant as Adam Ant; Graham Greene as a shaman; Anthony Edwards as a lawyer whose multi-chemical sensitivity is cured by becoming a PETA-style environmental activist; etc.
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Hardly revolutionary. I had a similar stock back in the 1970s and saw ones that looked like wooden rifle stocks back then too. I was just getting into amateur photography with a 400 mm telephoto lens and this sort of stabilizer dramatically improved your steadiness without forcing you to use a tripod/monopod.
or: “How To Get Killed, As A Photo Journalist, in A War Zone”…
I have a 500mm lens which is almost impossible to hold steady without a support. My monopod vanished during a job move, and I really ought to replace it.
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I can think of a number of conditions one might encounter doing nature photography that might make a monopod awkward or impractical. Shooting while you’re standing in mud or water or snow, crouching in a tree or bush to get a good shot from cover, etc.
Of course just because it may make sense to have a device to stabilize and distribute the weight of a camera against your shoulder doesn’t mean it has to look like a rifle stock, because unlike a firearm a camera doesn’t create recoil.
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Hardly ‘revolutionary’ here are three of mine from the 70’s & 80’s
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It’s wild how such a minor detail in a single episode made such a huge impression, because I was thinking of this exact same shot, etc. Many thanks for digging up the picture because it would have driven me nuts trying to find it, let alone if nobody had mentioned it!
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TBF, you don’t need one of these things for people to target journalists in war zones. 
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