Bobarino
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 Re: Tripod primary leg angle - Is 23 deg. the new trend? | |
ULTRA777 wrote:
Bobarino wrote:
I hope that 3-series LS324CEX tripod works out for you, but I would temper my expectations to a certain degree. Mind you, there's always that trade-off between stability and portability..
I currently have five carbon fiber tripods from Gitzo; a 1-series Mountaineer,, a 2-series Traveller,, a 3-series XLS Systematic, a 4-series Traveller/Systematic, and a 5-series Systematic. I would say that the 3-series GT-3542XLS is probably the most versatile of that bunch, but it can't approach the stiffness and stability of the 5-series. The overall height of the 3-series XLS is what makes it so versatile. I'm roughly 5'9", and that XLS measures 79" (6'7"). Even when I fully retract the lower leg-section, the camera's view-finder is at,,, or slightly above,, my eye-level, so it's stiffer, and so quick to set-up. I don't have to "paint a mark" on the legs to predict what my eye-level leg-extension point is. For me, that extra height opens the operating window greatly, and the added weight (compared to my 2-seriesTraveller and 1-series Mountaineer) is worth the extra effort in stability vs portability. It strikes me as being the close-to-perfect tripod for landscapes. That said, with a lot of focus-stacking and longer exposures,, the 5-series is simply unbeatable. I affectionaly call her "Bazooka-legs" 
I just purchased a GT5543XLS to replace my aging Manfrotto 055 PROB and am happy with the stability. Gitzo specifies the first leg angle to be 26°, which is about the same as my old 055 upon manually checking.
While Gitzo's 5 Series may well be the last word in ultimate stability, for traveling, my wife has voiced some objections to me bringing it along. I was considering a smaller travel tripod and noticed that the 4 Series is only listed at 23°. Not sure why Gitzo would be changing leg angles between their Systematic Series, as I would have thought the benefits of a 26° first leg lock would scale proportionally between the different sizes.
That being said, have you noticed much stability difference between the 4 and 5 series? I'm not referring to rigidity, as the 4 series would be less, but stability differences arising because of the lower leg angle.
Personally, I've not done that specific comparison between the 4 and 5 series, and that's mostly due to the specific reasons why I purchased both models. My 4-series was chosen to be used as a heavy-duty "Traveller Systematic", with a folded length of 18". (Gitzo GT-4552TS). I wanted this size specifically for travelling on smaller aircraft.(bush planes, or planes on floats).
I chose my 5-series (GT-5532S) simply because I wanted to experience the stiffest and most stable tripod that Gitzo makes, regardless of size. Yaw stiffness was an important consideration.(dealing with high crosswinds)
I also have series 1 and 2 Mountaineers, plus a 2-series Traveller, and my favorite among those is the 2-series Mountaineer.(GT-2542).
That said, it really boils down to what you want to do with it. For example, I really like the 1-series Mountaineer for street-type photography. (ample height for me, fast set-up speed and reasonably compact footprint).
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