Here I will illustrate my journey of buying camera tripods for the past 6 years of doing digital photography. Initially when I started serious photography 5 years back, I only had a Nikon D40 with kit lens as any beginner would start photography. Then I never knew the importance of having a good and sturdy tripod as most of my photographs were made in auto mode and the camera would adjust any low light situation with the built in pop up flash to adjust the shutter speed to avoid any camera shake. Then I slowly graduated to a 70-300mm telephoto lens. This was the beginning of my problem with camera shakes. Most of the images from the camera looking less sharp. I was not able to apply the reciprocal rule of using minimum shutter speed of reciprocal of the focal length in use as the lighting situations I was shooting would not allow me to do it.
I decided to buy my
first tripod. I did not know any brands or makes nor the market was so
flourished as it is today. There were fewer resources to help guide a beginner
or a expert personal opinion available back then. I decided to rely on the
sales man in the shop in my city. My budget was very limited as I felt tripod
was just to hold the camera and does not make any difference whether it was
costly or not. My first tripod was a Velbon
CX 440 . A very limited budget purchase of $30 (~ Indian Rupee 1800). Used
it for roughly 3 months. My photography skills enhanced as the time passed and
my aspirations grew. I realized that this tripod was of not much use as it was
not steady and had only 2 axis movement and could not take on more weight as my
camera gears were upgraded with due course of time.
The decision to sell
this of and upgrade to a much better one. But how much to pay for was the next
question. That was the time when I was introduced to a brand called
Manfrotto.Research on internet and found that Manfrotto
55 Xpro B was the answer for this. But that is when I learnt that the
tripod had to be purchased as two units. The tripod and the head.
The tripods again
can be divided in to further categories , with center column and w/o center
column. The tripods w/o center column are more stable as the camera rests on
the base plate. The center column tripods can be divided into geared one or
rapid columns. The geared center column a lever has to be turned to raise or
lower the center column of the tripod. The rapid column allows user to pull up
or push down center Colum using the hand allowing for faster movements but will
have to struggle for finer adjustments.
And in heads there
are multiple types like the pan heads, balls heads, fluid heads, gimbal head (I
will post another review on this later). This blog is limited to the ball
heads. A ball head is a kind of head were the camera can be fixed on to a ball
and socket joint which allows to rotate and tilt the camera in all 3 axis with
ease and can be tightened using a single knob. This kind of head also allows to
make pan movement also around 360 degrees. I was getting into panorama as well
at this point of time.
I decided to go with
the Manfrotto
55 Xpro B and the Manfrotto
498 RC2 (this is a newer version of what I had used) ball head. This a
stable and within the budget solution for a tripod. I paid $390 (Indian Rupees
19000) in 2007. This was a good solution and I was very happy with the
stability. I took many good and award winning photos using this tripod. But it
had a drawback which I realized sooner I started using it. I do lot of trekking
for landscape photography and which required a strong tripod to accompany for
hours of walking on the trail. The tripod had to be hung from my back pack
which meant additional weight. HUH hit right on the bulls eye. I found most of
the time during my treks I would carry my tripod to the base camp till where we
had good transport and then I left the tripod behind either in the car or base
camp room because of the weight. Yes The
Manfrotto
55 Xpro B and the Manfrotto
498 RC2 weighed almost 2.85 kgs. Not a good sign when you go for a 30 mile
trek.
Used this for almost
3.5 years. It was my companion and almost made every picture on this rugged 3
legged legend. I started looking out for light weight solution. I realized the
fact, light and cheap tripods are not stable, a stable and cheap tripod is not
light and light and stable tripods are not cheap. I started researching on the
carbon fiber tripods and Gitzos were the first name in it. But it came at a
price that I had to pay for their quality, light weight and stability and
extreme versatility for carrying around.
I narrowed down to
the Gitzo
GT1542T . I paid $630 (~Indian Rupees 33,000). Got it here from bnhphotovideo.com
here. Its best to buy from US and get it shipped to India through your friends
travelling to India. Best thing about
this tripod is the more you load it more stable it becomes as it uses a
technology called G-Lock (gravity lock??).
It can take a maximum load of 7 Kgs. A tripod weighing 900gms can take a
load of 7Kg. Incredible is it! Most of
the professional line cameras with best of medium telephoto zoom lens can be
loaded on to this. This tripod is best for most of landscape, macro ( the
center column can be completely removed to get the tripod at extreme low angle
positions (versatile?) and day to day work where it can be easily be lugged on
to a waist clip because of low weight.
Now the tripod was
finalized. I had to chose the tripod head. Any day I would go for a ball head
given the fact that I work exclusively with still photography medium. My
requirement was a ball head which would fit exactly over the Gitzo
GT1542T tripod and was a light weight solution to add to a light weight
tripod. I did extreme researches and read reviews about the products available
before arriving at this. I pinned down to the Acratec
GP-s balled head which was a special solution for tripods with narrow base.
I paid $399 (Indian Rupees 21000). This head is 400 gms. Clubbed with the Gitzo
GT1542T it makes a extremely light weight solution of 1.3 Kgs in total.
Another good point
to be stressed about the Acratec
GP-s balled head is that the ball and socket is not completely covered. So
no need to fear about dust and sand getting in and the mechanism getting
choked. As I am into lot of sea scapes photography this was very important.
This head also allowed the 80-400mm lens to be used as if on a gimbal. Panning
was easier than before on tripod.
On an overall I
would give Gitzo
GT1542T and Acratec
GP-s ball head combination a 9/10 review points. 1 point reduced for the sake of it:-).
