Any advice on a good tripod?

[Sonno]

Instead of sifting thru a bizillion reviews and what have you, I figured I'd just come here and ask.

I'm in need of good tripod. Looking for a ball head, something really sturdy, preferably with a "quick release", and a way to go from horizontal to vertical rather easily. And something I can attach to my bag and transport rather easily. Not looking to spend a ton of money, but something decent.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks all!

 

[Kelly Grannell]

what is your camera? If it is point and shoot, Manfrotto Modo Maxi will fit the bill (US$79)

 

[Sonno]

Canon 30D

 

[Spectro is #1]

I aways failed to capture the fireworks correctly and after reading Kelly's post on how to take pictures of fireworks I knew I could now do it but I needed a tripod.

You need to determine what your needs are. For me it was portability. I wanted the tallest tripod that folded into the smallest space. It needed to be light weight without being cheep and flimsy.


After spending hours and hours reading reviews I ended up with a Velbon #343E. It will unfold to around 6 feet but folds up to only 18". Do a search in Google and you will find countless reviews praising this tripod. I use a D70 on it with no problem. The D70 is not a lightweight camera. My Friend's Rebel is much much lighter and smaller.

It does have a ball head and no cranks so it isn't as bulky as most tripods. It was designed for travel so don't expect to be shooting weddings with it every weekend but it is a great unit! (my friend with the Cannon will be getting one after he saw it on our last trip to WDW)
If the #343E is too much of a compromise they make similar units with other features.

I have seen it priced from $69.00 to $89.00 but I got a new one on EBay for $61.00

"WALT DISNEY WORLD, DON'T DO IT WITHOUT A TRIPOD!"
(and thanks for the tips Kelly!)


Link to reviews and a price of $69

 

[Kelly Grannell]

Did you use the Velbon for the fireworks pictures you took? Because I still can see camera shake. Did you use cable shutter release? maybe the Veblon is not the problem but shutter press creates the problem.

 

[Kelly Grannell]

Canon 30D

Nothing lower than $100 NOT includling head will suffice. You can essentially buy Velbon, Slik, Manfrotto/Bogen, in the end they are about the same (for the $100-ish range). Just remember, whatever your gear total weight is (including flash and your heaviest lens), add 100% (don't forget a good head will be heavy too), then go to their respective website to see what's each tripod's maximum weight capability.

So say your total maximum weight of your gear is 5 lbs, get a tripod that can handle 10 lbs. A good head can esily add 2 lbs to your weight.

 

[Sonno]

Alrighty, so if I want to buy ONE tripod and use it for a good long while, I should tally the weight of a 1Ds MkII (+ maybe 10% for the MKIII) equiped with a 580EX, an EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM, and an Extender EF 2x II, plus the weight of the head, and multiply all that by 2?

 

[Kelly Grannell]

exactly. Maybe not exactly multiplied by 2 (because you add extender there). So with that extreme equipment, you need to only add maybe 60% on top of the weight (depending on the type of head you want to use. if you ever think about using a gimbal-type head, then yes, definitely multiply it by two)

Don't make the same mistake I did. I now have 4 tripods at home. What a waste of money and space.

 

[Spectro is #1]

Yes and Yes, don't know what you are seeing? On the photo of the castle the smoke combined with the colored flood lights made the windows appear to be blurry but if you look at the top you will see that Tinkerbell is quite sharp. The GF tower is a little hot, It was taken with a large zoom and the shutter needed to be open a long time. You can see the green and red lights from the boats on the water blured in the photo

 

[Kelly Grannell]

that's exactly what I'm seeing, super sharpness combined with a bit of bluriness at the same spot (more like halo effect). It's kinda difficult to describe. The more plausible cause of this is obviously the use of finger shutter release (instead of cable).

Regardless, except for the top 2 pictures, they are more than acceptable, very good even!

 

[Anewman]

Nice shots Spectro

And I think that tripod is doing more than anyone can really expect from a 18 inch(folded)- 6 feet Tripod, I mean we all want great pictures but at the same time we would like to enjoy our vacation.

I may consider this one for our Aug. trip, thanks for that.

 

[Spectro is #1]

I used a remote. (do they make a cable release for a D70?). The halo effect comes from the spot lights pointed at the castle. The smoke is catching the lights and it makes the castle look like it is glowing. I kinda like it, it looks spooky..

 

[Kelly Grannell]

pics 3 and 4 are fine. I like the halo effect on pic 4. I'm talking about pic 1 and 2.

Pic 1 severe halo effect on every single lighted source, pic 2 slight halo effect on Space Mountain and Castle.

 

[Sonno]

Heya Spectro, in pic 3 up there, what did you take your meter reading off of? The lights on the globe?