SmegHead
Offline
Upload & Sell: On
|
 p.1 #9 · Best tripod for around $300? | |
These are the legs I picked up:
http://www.henrys.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ItemsDisplay?storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&departmentId=10410&categoryId=10464&itemID=239053
Its they're new line of CF legs, not the "magfiber" line. The magfiber line seemed to have more plastic parts, these legs are based on the 3021 line, they're just made of CF. They're within a few grams of some of the more expensive legs. I think I paid about $300 CAD, so you can probably get them cheaper in the states. A good ball head is going to run you, but it's SOOOO worth it. It's no sense dropping cash on a great set of legs and putting a crap ball head on it. If you go for a cheap ball head this is what's going to happen especially with a long heavy lens.
1) you line up the shot on a bird on a branch
2) you tighten the ball head
3) tightening the ball head shifts the position of the head or you let go of the camera and it creeps a few millimeters which can be five or six feet away from where you aimed through a long lens... the longer the lens, the more a tiny creep affects framing
4) you swear, loosen the ball head, re frame the shot... go back to 2) repeat untill the bird looks at you like an idiot and flies away.
Ideally you want a ball head with two knobs, a tension knob and a locking knob. The locking knob is obvious.. it tightens the ball head from loose to locked solid. The tension knob controls how loose the ball head starts at, from no tension at all, to partially locked, this will help a lot if you're tracking a moving subject. Just increase the tension untill you can smoothly aim the camera, but the head takes a lot of the weight so you're not jerking around.
Keep an eye on the forums, there's usually a lot of ball heads floating around. My advice is pick up the most heavy duty ball head you can afford, money or weight wise. Many people start off small and have to keep buying better heads when they find out a light one isn't good enough... which is why there's a lot of ball heads on the buy/sell boards  I cringed at spending almost as much as my main body on a set of legs and a head... but you will not regret it. The first time you take a truly good tripod out in the field and realise you've been swearing at tripods needlessly for years you'll feel it's money well spent. I found out the hard way that I'm too poor to be cheap, get the best you can afford now and you won't have to upgrade 5 times to finally get to the thing you should have picked up in the first place.
|
