Mark_EL wrote:
Well, I actually chose this instead of a drone. I use this thing for my business now and then, and I am allowed to put this up anywhere I want and I am insured if anything should go wrong. If you want to use a drone for your business though, you will have to put up with a lot of rules and laws where you can and - more important - where you are not allowed to fly. On top of that, you need a pilots licence to fly a drone for your business. (In The Netherlands anyway). If you don’t meet those requirements, you can’t get liability insurance for flying, which is a risk I am not willing to take. And I don’t have near enough work of this kind to make it worth the trouble of getting a licence.......Show more →
One fancy gitzo for serious work or heavy equipment, and one travel tripod (mefoto) for either light setup or travel. I have a monopod also but haven't used it yet.
I have cut back to having only 3 tripods. A heavy duty Feisol for overseas use with large lenses, a Gitzo 2531LVL that is perfect for landscape photography stateside, and a small Cullmann that only goes to 30" in height but collapses to 11" and weighs only 17 ounces with its ballhead and is my travel tripod when not taking big lenses.
What has been great with the Feisol Elite CT-3472 is that I can use it with or without a center column and swap out the base for a quick leveling one and this gives me the functionality of 3 tripods with the different configurations which take 60 seconds to alter.
I have 3 full size tripods + 1 Joby Gorillapod. My primary one is a Gitzo Mountaineer GT2532 with GH3382QD ballhead. Absolutely love this combo! It is a happy medium between the super light Travellers and the ultra heavy Systematics. I have however read numerous horror stories about its cast magnesium spider. That is one of the reasons I decided to purchase a RRS TVC 44 + BH55 ballhead a while back. Stability is a lot more important to me than portability as I shoot ultra long exposures during day time in all sorts of conditions.
My third tripod which I almost never use these days is a Manfrotto Befree CF. Very light and portable, but I would not trust my D850+14-24mm lens with it.
I use the Gorillapod 5K kit only in cases of emergency, ie, if it is impossible to use a full size tripod for some reason.
PS: I also had a Manfrotto 055 aluminium tripod a few years ago, but sold it as I was never happy with it (especially the ballhead).
My Manfrotto 055 is my main tripod - I have it since 30 years and even with a DIY repaired fracture due to too much force from my side it still works like a charm. I use it even with my 400mm/2.8 lens.
Another one of these, Bogen labeld, I have at my parents home, so I don´t need to take it with me on the visits by train.
Additional I have an old heavy Gitzo tripod for really heavy setups or the need for long exposures with heavy lenses. A big Benbo tripod for work in water or sand, due to the inverted leg setup. Or for special setups with the need for those quite variable leg positions.
Two Pentacon Universal are even more variable with the legs - one of them modified for work very close to the ground work.
And I have some some tripods for flashes.
I have 0,5 (as in, sharing one with my wife). Works so far as there's very little chance that we'll be out shooting together, and both want to do long exposures at the same time.
Actually it happened once, in Nepal, but even if we had had two tripods in the household, no way would we have been hauling both of them up the mountains at once.
Can anybody recommend some decent tripod which would hold easily A7R3 with 100-400GM? Something easy to carry and compact and within $150-200 price range. Don't need top of line tripod since im not using it that often.
milkod2001 wrote:
Can anybody recommend some decent tripod which would hold easily A7R3 with 100-400GM? Something easy to carry and compact and within $150-200 price range. Don't need top of line tripod since im not using it that often.
You might try the Tiltall TE-224 (small) or TE-284 (large) aluminum tripod -- it's not the most elegant; but it is very well made and the company has been around forever. I bought mine (the original tall version with the 3-way tilt head which I do NOT recommend) back about 1970. It is still going strong (now with an Acratech Ultimate ball head and an RRS lever-release clamp attached). The legs will last forever. It was my very first tripod and I still use it occasionally.
You'll need to get a ball head for it; but you don't have to go overboard as I did.
And since this thread is about tripods, I have six that are pretty traditional. My others are from Gitzo (3-series & 5-series), RRS, PMG and Sachtler. Except for the Tiltall, all are CF. Heads are NPC Pro, Acratech (2), Markins, RRS, FLM, FlexShooter, Sachtler, and, soon, Burzynski. I really don't use the NPC Pro any more, but it is unusual. One of the Acratech's is permanently mounted on the Tiltall. All the others are mounted on 75mm half-balls (well, except the Sachtler, which has its 75mm half-ball built in).
Then I have an inexpensive Cullmann 3400 video tripod (very cleverly incorporating a monopod) and a four-armed monstrosity that articulates in ways that no tripod should called the bent-bolt Uni-Lok Major System 1600. So, eight, in all.
milkod2001 wrote:
Can anybody recommend some decent tripod which would hold easily A7R3 with 100-400GM? Something easy to carry and compact and within $150-200 price range. Don't need top of line tripod since im not using it that often.
I have the CF version this, which is oddly out of stock atm. Company has excellent service, and the fluid head is really smooth (in case you're gonna track subjects with it).
I have 3. An Induro CT313 which is my big/solid landscape tripod. A Leofoto LS-284c which is my travel/hiking tripod. And a small table top tripod that fits in my pocket
weh51nc wrote:
You might try the Tiltall TE-224 (small) or TE-284 (large) aluminum tripod -- it's not the most elegant; but it is very well made and the company has been around forever. I bought mine (the original tall version with the 3-way tilt head which I do NOT recommend) back about 1970. It is still going strong (now with an Acratech Ultimate ball head and an RRS lever-release clamp attached). The legs will last forever. It was my very first tripod and I still use it occasionally.
You'll need to get a ball head for it; but you don't have to go overboard as I did.
And since this thread is about tripods, I have six that are pretty traditional. My others are from Gitzo (3-series & 5-series), RRS, PMG and Sachtler. Except for the Tiltall, all are CF. Heads are NPC Pro, Acratech (2), Markins, RRS, FLM, FlexShooter, Sachtler, and, soon, Burzynski. I really don't use the NPC Pro any more, but it is unusual. One of the Acratech's is permanently mounted on the Tiltall. All the others are mounted on 75mm half-balls (well, except the Sachtler, which has its 75mm half-ball built in).
Thanks for advice. 2 weeks ago a actually got myself Benro Mach3 Kit Ser 2 Alum 4 Sect B2 Hd. Simple ball head that i can replace if really needed but so far im very happy with it as is. A bit heavy but super sturdy tripod under €300.
One for heavy gear, one for light gear and travel, but also one at my parents' house in Holland. Then somewhere a few older ones I don't use because they were either always crap and/or couldn't support my bird photography lens. Unlike cameras and lenses, though, I never have tripod GAS and I intend to keep mine forever as long as they do the job.
Nothing exotic about my equipment. Have nothing larger than a Sony a7iv and 24-105 + Fuji aspc gear.
1) Leofoto LS-284CEX
2) Manfrotto 3011BN tripod with 3130 or MVH502AH fluid heads and RRS TA-2U-LB leveling base for panos.
3) Leofoto Ranger LS-223C CF table top with K&F Concept ball head.
4) Oben CTM-2500 CF monopod with VH-R2 head or K&F Concept head.
