Basic guidelines on selection of tripod and tripod head


Hi,

I'm going to get a ballhead soon. I was thinking of getting the sirui ballhead at this store this afternoon but the salesperson told me not to get as it isn't as safe as the manfrotto one. Btw i'm using a manfrotto tripod. The salesperson said to get back the same brand of ballhead and tripod together because he quoted the sirui ballhead would damage the thread of the tripod thread. Is this true? Can i use any other brand of ballhead instead of a manfrotto?

Thanks.

Er.... which shop did u go? Better not buy stuff from there.

Yes, u can mix n match tripod head with tripod, brand is not the issue here.

As long as u tripod supports interchangable head (those low end cheap cheap tripod dont, pls refer to my previous post), all u need to take care is the screw size on the tripod and the screw mounting of the tripod head. There are 2 standard, 1/4" & 3/8" (pls refer to my previous post).
 

For those using Slik Sprint Pro GM or something similar, you can make it more sturdy my not using the wing screw, but twist the rubber grip (just below the wing screw in this image) to tighten the center column.

vert-mount-only.jpg
 

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In the market are some (both Alu & CF) small tripods that are design to be small & compact when folded. This is achieved by folding all 3 legs 180deg & extending the centra column all the way, something like iirc Travel Angel. Those are good.

But now there are some with similar design, with the major difference being the center column is permanently extend, ie when deployed, the centra column can't be retract. Though these are very affordable. However, seeing a few (both Alu & CF type) in action, with only M4/3 camera system mounted, it is not stable at all. The stability gets into the region of not usable imo when, the telescopic designed center column is further extended.

Yes it may be rated for certain load capacity & ur system is well below that weight, but what is not stated is the stability.

So do give this a deeper thought before u decide to get such tripod.
 

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Recently my Pratika Carl Zeiss Jena 300mm f4 MC ups the lorry, so bought a Hoya HMC 400mm f5.6. went shooting using my Manfrotto 680 monopod. But my strength & stamina went down, find the monopod very heavy. But CF monopod too $$$. But today just nice went to OP @ SLQ n saw a CF monopod going for S$95. Pls click the link to see the comparison between the 百变 DJ-324C (CF) vs Manfrotto 680 (ALU :

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/...738.1073741834.1514748189&type=1&l=91c1362801
 

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Tripod Gimbal Head is too expensive for me & I seldom use it. But sometime I needs that kind of flexibility it can offer ie swing the camera gear about like that of a machine gun. So this is what I did. A Hoya HMC 400mm f5.6 lens is mounted to EOS 40D, the set up is mounted to Manfrotto 488RC0 Midi Ball Head & 055 PRO Tripod.

Looking at the sharpness of the concrete ledge at the top left of this image, I think with the way I am using the Ball Head, it can offer me about 2stop stabilization, Rule of thumb to reduce camera shake is to use min. shutter speed = 1/(focal length) = 1/(400x1.6) = 1/640sec. The ledge is sharp at 1/125sec but abit blur at 1/50sec.

Next week will try to use monopod instead of tripod. I want to see how many stop stabilization can a monopod give.

Pls click on the link to see the photo & the setup :

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/...030.1073741835.1514748189&type=1&l=065d2cb6c4
 

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