Tripods

[Steve Axford]

I've never had any trouble with good ball heads, with any of my lenses up to a 300mm f2.8. Of course I don't need to have the ball hold the camera and lens at 90 deg (portrait mode) as all my heavy lenses have a tripod collar.
For macro work I need to use expensive tripods with a good ball head. The tripods are Gitzo explorer, which aren't cheap but I have found nothing else that really does the job and allows you to get down to ground level. I use ball heads and even the cheaper manfrotto ball heads are ok, though I do use more expensive heads too as, like Arthur, I am not keen on the manfrotto quick release system (it can move) and I like arca-swiss better.

[Tannin]

That's interesting, Arthur. I didn't know that there were different kinds of twist locks. I must have tried one of the not-so-nice ones years ago and assumed that all others were similar. Apparently this is not so.

Re the hydrostatic heads (which I called "video heads" above), doubtless my Manfrotto would have dealt OK with the 500/4 if I'd known about your grease trick. But that would mess up the entire purpose of having a hydrostatic head in the first place - i.e., having a nice smooth movement!

Arca Swiss style clamps are not the best clamps, they are the only clamps!

(Except that they are difficult to arange for smaller heads.)

[Hamster]

Thanks Cage.

Right off the bat, then, I'm 6'5". Are there any brands straight away that can get the viewfinder up over 6 foot?

Sounds like you need a drone, not a tripod

Seriously, I'm 6'2" and I rarely have the camera up at eye level because:
1 That usually means having the tripod fully extended, which compromises stability
2 A little lower and a bit of a crouch doesn't really change the angle of view that much
3 Actually the roughly head height view is one that everyone sees every day with their eyes, so I usually try to take shots from a lower perspective to present something different
4 I like to sit on a rock or something with the tripod un extended for stability and laziness reasons
5 A tripod that goes that high and has the stability required is usually very expensive and a PITA to carry, plus see 2.

[Hamster]

As far as ball heads are concerned, i use one of these
http://www.uniqball.eu/webshop/ballheads/ubh45. Very well built and I can set a level camera in seconds and it stays level even when you loosen the head to move the camera around. Watch a video on it to see why it's different.
I found infuriating tripods very good. Pretty much Gitzo levels of quality without Gitzo levels of price and with very good parts availability should you want to replace something.
I stripped mine to clean it and after a quick run through the shower all sand was out and it was as good as new.

[Hamster]

I found infuriating tripods very good.

That should be Induro tripods. God damn auto correct.

[davidd]

Yep! I don't think an infuriating tripod is the right one to get!

[Brendo09]

I ended up with a carbon fibre Q666C by Zomei.



Height wasn't as important as I thought. I'm happy with it, though I haven't put many miles on it to find it's weaknesses (or mine with tripod technique) yet.