Tripods (yeah I know beating a dead horse but hey)

dragon300zx

:deadhorse:deadhorse:deadhorse:deadhorse:deadhorse

So I have needed a new tripod for awhile. Well now I have no choice seeing as my old one kinda got broken in San Fran on sunday.

Question is what is the difference between a photo and video tripod? I am looking in B&H's new catalog and it's confusing me. Some are marked one or the other some aren't marked but they all pretty much look alike to me.

robscomputer

I just posted about this topic recently. :

After searching around and deciding on which head to buy I finally bought a tripod kit from BH.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=353320&is=REG

It's about $200 but it's very heavy duty and easily supports my camera with lens and flash. I struggled with a plastic tripod I bought years ago and it's been very unstable. Just a few months ago it finally broke after trying to support the heavy EOS 3 in the wind.

I'm not sure which tripod your looking at but I would recommend comparing the features you would like for the legs and head. For example I liked the 3021BPro legs, they are a bit higher rated for weight than the other series at the cost of extra weight. I also chose the 486RC2 ball head instead of a traditional 3way head. In the past I used the 3way head but wanted a more compact head and something that would allow faster movement to a certain angle.

Here's a short article about buying cheap tripods. It's a good read but to take lightly since the author suggests buying a $800 tripod/head set up.

Hope this helps,
Rob

ian408

dragon300zx wrote:

Question is what is the difference between a photo and video tripod? I am looking in B&H's new catalog and it's confusing me. Some are marked one or the other some aren't marked but they all pretty much look alike to me.

The biggest difference is that a photo is 3 axis and a video is 2 (pan and
tilt). Video heads can also be oil dampened which is nice when doing long
pans.

You might want to consider the legs and head separately. Buy something like
the Bogen 3021 and then a head to suit your need (ball would be nice).


Ian

dragon300zx

How about a Bogen 724B with a ball head?

ian408

dragon300zx wrote:

How about a Bogen 724B with a ball head?

Looks like a nice tripod.

Ian

wxwax

And what ballhead were you thinking of?

BTW, after all the tripod shooting we did last week, I ordered an L-bracket from Really Right Stuff. With it, you don't have to move the tripod head if you want to change your camera to portrait orientation.

The L-bracket has attachment points on the bottom and the side. So you simply remove the camera, rotate it, and put it back on the ball head. Much, much easier than trying to line up that darn ball head when you're kneeling in the wet mud.

DJ-S1

wxwax wrote:

And what ballhead were you thinking of?

BTW, after all the tripod shooting we did last week, I ordered an L-bracket from Really Right Stuff. With it, you don't have to move the tripod head if you want to change your camera to portrait orientation.

The L-bracket has attachment points on the bottom and the side. So you simply remove the camera, rotate it, and put it back on the ball head. Much, much easier than trying to line up that darn ball head when you're kneeling in the wet mud.

Wax-man, I never heard of the L-bracket and it sounded good to me so I checked it out at Really Right Stuff. $110??? What the...?? I don't think so!

wxwax

DJ-S1 wrote:

Wax-man, I never heard of the L-bracket and it sounded good to me so I checked it out at Really Right Stuff. $110??? What the...?? I don't think so!

Yeah, not cheap. There may be other makers out there, not sure. But I tell you, the convenience can't be beat. I got so irritated every time I change my camera's orientation and had to painstakingly make sure the horizon was level again. Wasted a lot of time as well. It's why I missed Marc Muench's sunrise shot at the Tunnel View. Well, not the only reason.... :pissed

Kirk makes 'em too, but even more expensive!

robscomputer

Another plus about the Really Right Stuff L brackets is a greater amount of support for heavy pro bodies. From what I read on their site they said the contact point of a typical quick release is much smaller than the contact point of the L bracket. Again it's still $150 for the L bracket on my camera but if you use a tripod for most of your shooting it might be worth it.

I'm pretty happy with my ball head but the RRS ball head is awesome!

Rob

pathfinder

wxwax wrote:

And what ballhead were you thinking of?

BTW, after all the tripod shooting we did last week, I ordered an L-bracket from Really Right Stuff. With it, you don't have to move the tripod head if you want to change your camera to portrait orientation.

The L-bracket has attachment points on the bottom and the side. So you simply remove the camera, rotate it, and put it back on the ball head. Much, much easier than trying to line up that darn ball head when you're kneeling in the wet mud.

Waxy, somewhere here on dgrin, I said that the first thing I do with a new camera body is to add an L-bracket from RRS. Yes, I agree, they seem expensive, but once you use one for a weekend, you will never want to not have one on your camera body if you use a tripod at all.. They work really nice on RRS pano-head also.

It was nice to meet you at Yosemite. I hope to begin to have an image of Yosemite to share in a few days when I finally get home. And they were almost all shot with a tripod and an L-bracket. I even have my spouse using one also.

pathfinder

robscomputer wrote:

Another plus about the Really Right Stuff L brackets is a greater amount of support for heavy pro bodies. From what I read on their site they said the contact point of a typical quick release is much smaller than the contact point of the L bracket. Again it's still $150 for the L bracket on my camera but if you use a tripod for most of your shooting it might be worth it.

I'm pretty happy with my ball head but the RRS ball head is awesome!

Rob

The RRS ball head is absolutely the cat's meow. Mark Muench picked up my tripod thinking it was his, because of the RRS Ballhead on it. I have Arca-Swiss heads at home, but I brought the RRS ball head to Yosemite with me.

ian408

wxwax wrote:

The L-bracket has attachment points on the bottom and the side. So you simply remove the camera, rotate it, and put it back on the ball head. Much, much easier than trying to line up that darn ball head when you're kneeling in the wet mud.

Most of my tripod work was done with a video head. It was smooth as
a babies bottom but man did it suck (remember that video heads are two
axis only). If I was shooting zoom, I was set as I could rotate in the tripod
collar. The L bracket would have solved that problem with the right ball head.

After trying Marc's camera/tripod set up, count me as a convert too.

Ian

wxwax

ian408 wrote:

Most of my tripod work was done with a video head. It was smooth as
a babies bottom but man did it suck (remember that video heads are two
axis only). If I was shooting zoom, I was set as I could rotate in the tripod
collar. The L bracket would have solved that problem with the right ball head.

After trying Marc's camera/tripod set up, count me as a convert too.

Ian

Yeah, I still think a ball head is the way to go for a still camera.

CalfeeRider

dragon300zx wrote:

:deadhorse:deadhorse:deadhorse:deadhorse:deadhorse

So I have needed a new tripod for awhile. Well now I have no choice seeing as my old one kinda got broken in San Fran on sunday.

Question is what is the difference between a photo and video tripod? I am looking in B&H's new catalog and it's confusing me. Some are marked one or the other some aren't marked but they all pretty much look alike to me.

Hey Dragon, don't know if you're still looking, but I've been pleased with my Feisol tripod. Getting a light-weight carbon fiber unit for under $200 I couldn't pass up. For me it's not a big deal, but the downside is it doesn't have quick release legs - they're twisties. Since I generally shoot at a location for a while, taking 60 seconds instead of 15 to extend the legs isn't an issue for me and I leave the tripod extended when I stick it back in my MDX to go to the next spot. But, having a light-weight unit on my backpack when I'm hiking or walking around *is* a huge deal! And their monopod is light as a feather!