Lightstream
17th of May 2007 (Thu), 05:15
There is precious, precious little information about tripods out there - only when you start searching for a review then you realize how difficult information is to find.
I am first and foremost a landscape, cityscape photographer. Long exposures at night demand a tripod, there is no way around it. I also love fireworks, both watching them, and now, taking photos of them. I doubt there are many mortals who can handhold 4 seconds, f/8 ISO 100 for a hundred frames back to back, hence the need for tripods
What I am not - a tripod or gear reviewer. I am not even sure if I qualify to review one of these but on the premise that SOME information is better than none, I have decided to write it. While care has been taken to ensure this information is correct to the best of my knowledge, use it at your own peril.
As has been truthfully said, tripods are a pain. They always are. I dump the tripod most of the time and go handheld whenever possible. I also invested heavily in image stabilized lenses, but as serious user of IS, I also understand their limitations. While IS is an amazing technology that has opened up whole new worlds to me, it is not a tripod replacement and not meant to be.
Part 1
------
My first experience was with a tripod I call the Supermarket Special. This is a very typical tripod made by some unknown OEM and re-branded under a million names. You will know it when you see it - a cheesy panhead, lightweight aluminium construction, flip-locks on the legs, triangle brace in the center, sold at many supermarkets, usually at a hefty discount. I bought one. I figured I could not lose; I was wrong. The only reason why I feel that I can point out a potential mistake now is because I have made it myself.
I still remember the one and only shoot that tripod went on. I remember setting up, and wondering why it was so shaky when fully deployed with nothing more than a 350D and kit lens on it. Or why the quick release plate (largely PLASTIC) and holder (also plastic) did not inspire a sense of confidence. Well, what choice did I have. Set up and start shooting.
I was lucky, because as I would later discover, the panhead had a plastic screw thread where it joined the aluminium center column. Cheap plastic vs aluminium: plastic loses. The threads stripped and the head fell off. It was only through sheer, crazy luck that the camera was NOT on the tripod - I had around my neck because I was handholding the camera at an odd angle to take a photo that was not accessible with the tripod. I hear this bang next to me, and while the tripod's still on my shoulder, the head is on the ground. My camera was and still is my baby, and I worked like hell to afford the money to buy that 350D. Times are better now and I have nice glass, nice tripods, but back then, a 350D was already a huge stretch - I had a budget for a superzoom P&S and I shoved a 350D in there somehow with a lot of sacrifice.
It was also lucky that some of the shots, while not technically perfect, impressed me (the n00b) so much that I decided to buy another tripod, if not it is entirely possible I may have decided never to invest in a tripod again.
Part 2
------
Next tripod was the Slik Sprint Pro GM. I wanted something LIGHT. Till this day, I hate heavy tripods. The Sprint Pro was awesome, and a tripod I really enjoyed carrying because of its light weight. 860 grams, ALL IN, including the head. Awesome. Fliplock legs in 4 sections (3 locks), even a ballhead. This was the tripod that taught me to love a ballhead. This is personal preference, we will get to it later.
The only disadvantage of the Slik is that it had no quick release plate, a Giottos MH625 QR assembly resolved this quite easily. 1/4 female thread on the bottom of the QR assembly (screws onto the ballhead), 1/4 male thread on top of the QR plate. No problem. The Slik stayed with me for quite a while, and I still recommend it (with a few caveats to bear in mind).
Caveats? Yes - there are some. The shots I took were never really critically sharp. I simply put it down to entry level DSLR gear, in bad light (usually in the evenings). They were adequately sharp and I have good 8x12" prints from some of them in my portfolio, but at 100% they are never quite as good as sharp shots in daylight (even on the same gear). As a n00b, this did not quite occur to me, but at least I enjoyed my time with the tripod. If you hate the huge aluminium brick, it will stay at home. It will therefore be useless. SOME tripod is better than NO tripod - bear this in mind.
Things only really came to a head when I upgraded to the 5D and 24-105. In retrospect that was really stupid, putting a 5D on this tripod and expecting it to work. Half second shots were so blurry as to be nearly unuseable. The weight of a big lens, even with the stabilizer running, and the weight of the 5D totally overloaded this tripod and ballhead. I have seen folks with 70-200's on it - I just can't imagine how they can get away with it. The tiny Slik SBH-100 head was beginning to give up - the lockup just was not secure enough. It is not designed for these applications, period.
We'll skip to the conclusions for those planning to get the Slik:
- KNOW THY LIMITATIONS. This applies to *ANY* tripod. Here are the limitations:
- Adequate for cameras up to 350D/400D, and 17-85 or 10-22mm (or similar) lenses. I have tested that combo.
- Really performs best with a bridge camera, 12X superzoom P&S or whatever you call it.
- Wonderfully light. I love the weight, I still do.
- Get a QR plate, look for the Giottos. The plate stayed with me, it's now directly attached to my monopod.
- The Slik MAY be able to carry heavier loads - but consider upgrading the ballhead.
Part 3
------
A trip to the local camera shop, one of my trusted dealers with outstanding service (including 'save your bacon when it counts most' service) let me in on something interesting: he was bringing in a new tripod from a brand we'd never heard of, apparently Manfrotto magfiber (CF) quality at a fraction of the price. I told him to get real; he told me to come back in 2 weeks time, I did.
Initially I was considering just buying a better ballhead, but really, I work technology - I preach 'integrated systems'. Every part of the system has to work together. It also looked ridiculous, a huge ballhead on a tiny tripod, so I decided to replace the entire rig.
They'd brought in the Benro series of tripods. I know they catch a whole lot of flak but I have put over a year of use on mine, landed lots of amazing photos with it. I too was skeptical, but my dealer offered me two things - a demonstration of a 300/2.8 (well it *WAS* a Nikkor lens with pro Nikon body and power booster) on it, and the same 'save your bacon' service if anything happened to the tripod. They slapped a 300/2.8 and angled it up at 45 degres and it seemed solid enough. My comment was "The day I can buy a 300/2.8 I can afford a Gitzo". (you can guess - the Gitzo has come, but the 300/2.8 is still eluding me ;) )
Unwilling to pony up the $$ for the carbon fiber models, I settled on the aluminium and walked out of the shop with a Benro A127n6 and a Benro KS-1 ballhead. This is, frankly, unbeatable value. I paid $90 for each part. This was my first serious tripod, and it was.. no, it is, pretty darn decent.
By and large, I shoot ultra wide. I seldom use a telephoto on a tripod simply because I have no need to. This means 10-22 on APS-C crop cameras, or 17-40 on full frame. UW is pretty tolerant of vibrations and thus, the aluminium tripod worked well even for 15-30 second exposures even at 100%. This fixed the Slik's problem of insufficient sharpness on long exposures because the weight and the rigidity of the Benro beat the stuffing out of the Slik. Unfortunately, weight had gone up to 1.68kg for the pod itself and the head added another 600gm. The carbon fiber models available at that time, over a year ago at this point, did not offer me much weight saving - maybe 200gm here and there. Not enough for me to pay 3X the amount of $$.
Note that 'pro' tripods will sell legs and heads separately, this way you can mix and match. Experienced photogs are supposed to know what they want; we know this is not always the case, but that's the way the world is.
The Benro came with a neat tripod bag as well, I really like the bag. It also has one leg wrapped in neoprene, which is useful for when you are shooting in the cold or when you are carrying it over your shoulder.
Another compromise of the Benro, besides the weight, was the fact that it used twist-lock legs. I have never liked twist locks. I have ALWAYS liked fliplocks, from day zero. The Supermarket Special and the Slik had fliplocks. I simply resigned myself to the fact that to get good value and good performance, something had to give.
An interesting observation of mine is that a staggering 80-90% of fellow photogs I meet at fireworks events seem to be using the Supermarket Special. If we are talking tripods, even an entry level Benro will stomp ALL over the Supermarket Special. Really, IMO, the Benro is more like a Manfrotto 190 without the weight.
Part 3A
-------
Here's where I meet the 'real' tripod. A bit dated, but a real solid combo nevertheless. An aluminium Gitzo G120 (I can't even find much info about this on the Net!) with an Arca Swiss B1, The Real Deal. The B1 is supposedly the be-all-end-all ballhead. I can tell you it is really solid, it is also really freaking heavy.
The Supermarket Special came in useful here, or at least the bag did.. since I borrowed the G120+AS, I did not have a bag, so I hijacked the bag from the $20 tripod. The irony.
I evaluated it against the Benro rig I was using, it was good, but I would rate them on par (from first impressions). I have no idea about the long term performance. They felt surprisingly similar and they both worked well, delivering the results where I needed them.
I've also used a friend's Manfrotto 190, now that is one amazingly solid tripod, you could slay fierce beasts and dragons with it, but it will also slay your shoulders at 2.2kg WITHOUT head. It's an awesome tripod and very stable, but the weight is just way out there. Then he put another kilo of panhead on it.. YIKES!! Well maybe it's a good thing he's substantially better built than I am....
Part 4A
-------
Again I say, know thy limitations. I set out to test the limitations, and where the Benro KS-1 ballhead was finally beginning to show its limits was with a 100-400 zoom lens attached to a 1D classic 4MP body. This combo is six pounds! The A127n6 legset was holding up just fine but I could not lock the KS-1 down securely enough when using this combo, especially when it was not parallel to the ground. This is a fairly extreme scenario, with a very long tele on a very heavy body. Other combos worked just fine, including a Sigma 70-200/2.8 on 1D, 100-400 with lighter body such as 5D or 350D. Anything less should work just fine.
The other thing which annoyed me was the dual knobs - I had to lock down the tension control AND the ballhead. Another trip to the house of temptation.. err, the camera shop, yielded a useful surprise: the Markins Q3 ballhead. This head is pretty dang amazing. For a 385gm piece of hardware, it can hold 30 KILOS. And they said they'd put a Wimberley Sidekick with Canon 300/2.8 ISL on this tiny little head. Again see comment about my 300/2.8 being far off - not today, not tomorrow, ask again in 2 years time ;)
Plus, the Markins, like the Arca Swiss, has only one knob and the tension control dial at the side. Plus I liked its very short throw from lock to unlock, so I bought it.
Here is where I have extra respect for the Benro ballheads. One of the BIGGEST reasons why I like them is that they use the more or less 'open' standard of the Arca dovetail plates. I do not like proprietary ballhead plates, because you are essentially 'locked in' to a system. Suppose that the manufacturer doesn't make a head that suits your requirements. You are now forced to dump all your plates as well as the ballhead. You're limited in your choice of accessories, you can't leverage third party plates and other innovative creations. The open standard Arca compatible plates are, in my opinion, the ONLY way to fly - period. The Benro's introduced me to Arca plates and I have always been grateful for that.
When I switched to the Markins, ALL my existing plates came with me. No re-investment. No problem! I'm still using those plates, including a Camdapter plate that I particularly like. No, you will never find me buying into another closed system again. I bought the Giottos MH625 knowing it would be a 'dead end' system, that I'd use it, but not buy other accessories for it.
The Markins is amazing. Handled my 1-4 and 1D with no problems. You might have seen this image I toss around at times. I haven't actually been able to buy sufficient camera hardware to find out its limitations. I will probably stay that way. I used the Markins on my A127 for a long time, and I still highly recommend the A127n6, for anything lighter than a 100-400 with 1D. These are outstanding value for money, reasonable weight, reasonable rigidity, and decent performance.
http://pix.lightrefineries.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=2052&g2_serialNumber=2
I am first and foremost a landscape, cityscape photographer. Long exposures at night demand a tripod, there is no way around it. I also love fireworks, both watching them, and now, taking photos of them. I doubt there are many mortals who can handhold 4 seconds, f/8 ISO 100 for a hundred frames back to back, hence the need for tripods
What I am not - a tripod or gear reviewer. I am not even sure if I qualify to review one of these but on the premise that SOME information is better than none, I have decided to write it. While care has been taken to ensure this information is correct to the best of my knowledge, use it at your own peril.
As has been truthfully said, tripods are a pain. They always are. I dump the tripod most of the time and go handheld whenever possible. I also invested heavily in image stabilized lenses, but as serious user of IS, I also understand their limitations. While IS is an amazing technology that has opened up whole new worlds to me, it is not a tripod replacement and not meant to be.
Part 1
------
My first experience was with a tripod I call the Supermarket Special. This is a very typical tripod made by some unknown OEM and re-branded under a million names. You will know it when you see it - a cheesy panhead, lightweight aluminium construction, flip-locks on the legs, triangle brace in the center, sold at many supermarkets, usually at a hefty discount. I bought one. I figured I could not lose; I was wrong. The only reason why I feel that I can point out a potential mistake now is because I have made it myself.
I still remember the one and only shoot that tripod went on. I remember setting up, and wondering why it was so shaky when fully deployed with nothing more than a 350D and kit lens on it. Or why the quick release plate (largely PLASTIC) and holder (also plastic) did not inspire a sense of confidence. Well, what choice did I have. Set up and start shooting.
I was lucky, because as I would later discover, the panhead had a plastic screw thread where it joined the aluminium center column. Cheap plastic vs aluminium: plastic loses. The threads stripped and the head fell off. It was only through sheer, crazy luck that the camera was NOT on the tripod - I had around my neck because I was handholding the camera at an odd angle to take a photo that was not accessible with the tripod. I hear this bang next to me, and while the tripod's still on my shoulder, the head is on the ground. My camera was and still is my baby, and I worked like hell to afford the money to buy that 350D. Times are better now and I have nice glass, nice tripods, but back then, a 350D was already a huge stretch - I had a budget for a superzoom P&S and I shoved a 350D in there somehow with a lot of sacrifice.
It was also lucky that some of the shots, while not technically perfect, impressed me (the n00b) so much that I decided to buy another tripod, if not it is entirely possible I may have decided never to invest in a tripod again.
Part 2
------
Next tripod was the Slik Sprint Pro GM. I wanted something LIGHT. Till this day, I hate heavy tripods. The Sprint Pro was awesome, and a tripod I really enjoyed carrying because of its light weight. 860 grams, ALL IN, including the head. Awesome. Fliplock legs in 4 sections (3 locks), even a ballhead. This was the tripod that taught me to love a ballhead. This is personal preference, we will get to it later.
The only disadvantage of the Slik is that it had no quick release plate, a Giottos MH625 QR assembly resolved this quite easily. 1/4 female thread on the bottom of the QR assembly (screws onto the ballhead), 1/4 male thread on top of the QR plate. No problem. The Slik stayed with me for quite a while, and I still recommend it (with a few caveats to bear in mind).
Caveats? Yes - there are some. The shots I took were never really critically sharp. I simply put it down to entry level DSLR gear, in bad light (usually in the evenings). They were adequately sharp and I have good 8x12" prints from some of them in my portfolio, but at 100% they are never quite as good as sharp shots in daylight (even on the same gear). As a n00b, this did not quite occur to me, but at least I enjoyed my time with the tripod. If you hate the huge aluminium brick, it will stay at home. It will therefore be useless. SOME tripod is better than NO tripod - bear this in mind.
Things only really came to a head when I upgraded to the 5D and 24-105. In retrospect that was really stupid, putting a 5D on this tripod and expecting it to work. Half second shots were so blurry as to be nearly unuseable. The weight of a big lens, even with the stabilizer running, and the weight of the 5D totally overloaded this tripod and ballhead. I have seen folks with 70-200's on it - I just can't imagine how they can get away with it. The tiny Slik SBH-100 head was beginning to give up - the lockup just was not secure enough. It is not designed for these applications, period.
We'll skip to the conclusions for those planning to get the Slik:
- KNOW THY LIMITATIONS. This applies to *ANY* tripod. Here are the limitations:
- Adequate for cameras up to 350D/400D, and 17-85 or 10-22mm (or similar) lenses. I have tested that combo.
- Really performs best with a bridge camera, 12X superzoom P&S or whatever you call it.
- Wonderfully light. I love the weight, I still do.
- Get a QR plate, look for the Giottos. The plate stayed with me, it's now directly attached to my monopod.
- The Slik MAY be able to carry heavier loads - but consider upgrading the ballhead.
Part 3
------
A trip to the local camera shop, one of my trusted dealers with outstanding service (including 'save your bacon when it counts most' service) let me in on something interesting: he was bringing in a new tripod from a brand we'd never heard of, apparently Manfrotto magfiber (CF) quality at a fraction of the price. I told him to get real; he told me to come back in 2 weeks time, I did.
Initially I was considering just buying a better ballhead, but really, I work technology - I preach 'integrated systems'. Every part of the system has to work together. It also looked ridiculous, a huge ballhead on a tiny tripod, so I decided to replace the entire rig.
They'd brought in the Benro series of tripods. I know they catch a whole lot of flak but I have put over a year of use on mine, landed lots of amazing photos with it. I too was skeptical, but my dealer offered me two things - a demonstration of a 300/2.8 (well it *WAS* a Nikkor lens with pro Nikon body and power booster) on it, and the same 'save your bacon' service if anything happened to the tripod. They slapped a 300/2.8 and angled it up at 45 degres and it seemed solid enough. My comment was "The day I can buy a 300/2.8 I can afford a Gitzo". (you can guess - the Gitzo has come, but the 300/2.8 is still eluding me ;) )
Unwilling to pony up the $$ for the carbon fiber models, I settled on the aluminium and walked out of the shop with a Benro A127n6 and a Benro KS-1 ballhead. This is, frankly, unbeatable value. I paid $90 for each part. This was my first serious tripod, and it was.. no, it is, pretty darn decent.
By and large, I shoot ultra wide. I seldom use a telephoto on a tripod simply because I have no need to. This means 10-22 on APS-C crop cameras, or 17-40 on full frame. UW is pretty tolerant of vibrations and thus, the aluminium tripod worked well even for 15-30 second exposures even at 100%. This fixed the Slik's problem of insufficient sharpness on long exposures because the weight and the rigidity of the Benro beat the stuffing out of the Slik. Unfortunately, weight had gone up to 1.68kg for the pod itself and the head added another 600gm. The carbon fiber models available at that time, over a year ago at this point, did not offer me much weight saving - maybe 200gm here and there. Not enough for me to pay 3X the amount of $$.
Note that 'pro' tripods will sell legs and heads separately, this way you can mix and match. Experienced photogs are supposed to know what they want; we know this is not always the case, but that's the way the world is.
The Benro came with a neat tripod bag as well, I really like the bag. It also has one leg wrapped in neoprene, which is useful for when you are shooting in the cold or when you are carrying it over your shoulder.
Another compromise of the Benro, besides the weight, was the fact that it used twist-lock legs. I have never liked twist locks. I have ALWAYS liked fliplocks, from day zero. The Supermarket Special and the Slik had fliplocks. I simply resigned myself to the fact that to get good value and good performance, something had to give.
An interesting observation of mine is that a staggering 80-90% of fellow photogs I meet at fireworks events seem to be using the Supermarket Special. If we are talking tripods, even an entry level Benro will stomp ALL over the Supermarket Special. Really, IMO, the Benro is more like a Manfrotto 190 without the weight.
Part 3A
-------
Here's where I meet the 'real' tripod. A bit dated, but a real solid combo nevertheless. An aluminium Gitzo G120 (I can't even find much info about this on the Net!) with an Arca Swiss B1, The Real Deal. The B1 is supposedly the be-all-end-all ballhead. I can tell you it is really solid, it is also really freaking heavy.
The Supermarket Special came in useful here, or at least the bag did.. since I borrowed the G120+AS, I did not have a bag, so I hijacked the bag from the $20 tripod. The irony.
I evaluated it against the Benro rig I was using, it was good, but I would rate them on par (from first impressions). I have no idea about the long term performance. They felt surprisingly similar and they both worked well, delivering the results where I needed them.
I've also used a friend's Manfrotto 190, now that is one amazingly solid tripod, you could slay fierce beasts and dragons with it, but it will also slay your shoulders at 2.2kg WITHOUT head. It's an awesome tripod and very stable, but the weight is just way out there. Then he put another kilo of panhead on it.. YIKES!! Well maybe it's a good thing he's substantially better built than I am....
Part 4A
-------
Again I say, know thy limitations. I set out to test the limitations, and where the Benro KS-1 ballhead was finally beginning to show its limits was with a 100-400 zoom lens attached to a 1D classic 4MP body. This combo is six pounds! The A127n6 legset was holding up just fine but I could not lock the KS-1 down securely enough when using this combo, especially when it was not parallel to the ground. This is a fairly extreme scenario, with a very long tele on a very heavy body. Other combos worked just fine, including a Sigma 70-200/2.8 on 1D, 100-400 with lighter body such as 5D or 350D. Anything less should work just fine.
The other thing which annoyed me was the dual knobs - I had to lock down the tension control AND the ballhead. Another trip to the house of temptation.. err, the camera shop, yielded a useful surprise: the Markins Q3 ballhead. This head is pretty dang amazing. For a 385gm piece of hardware, it can hold 30 KILOS. And they said they'd put a Wimberley Sidekick with Canon 300/2.8 ISL on this tiny little head. Again see comment about my 300/2.8 being far off - not today, not tomorrow, ask again in 2 years time ;)
Plus, the Markins, like the Arca Swiss, has only one knob and the tension control dial at the side. Plus I liked its very short throw from lock to unlock, so I bought it.
Here is where I have extra respect for the Benro ballheads. One of the BIGGEST reasons why I like them is that they use the more or less 'open' standard of the Arca dovetail plates. I do not like proprietary ballhead plates, because you are essentially 'locked in' to a system. Suppose that the manufacturer doesn't make a head that suits your requirements. You are now forced to dump all your plates as well as the ballhead. You're limited in your choice of accessories, you can't leverage third party plates and other innovative creations. The open standard Arca compatible plates are, in my opinion, the ONLY way to fly - period. The Benro's introduced me to Arca plates and I have always been grateful for that.
When I switched to the Markins, ALL my existing plates came with me. No re-investment. No problem! I'm still using those plates, including a Camdapter plate that I particularly like. No, you will never find me buying into another closed system again. I bought the Giottos MH625 knowing it would be a 'dead end' system, that I'd use it, but not buy other accessories for it.
The Markins is amazing. Handled my 1-4 and 1D with no problems. You might have seen this image I toss around at times. I haven't actually been able to buy sufficient camera hardware to find out its limitations. I will probably stay that way. I used the Markins on my A127 for a long time, and I still highly recommend the A127n6, for anything lighter than a 100-400 with 1D. These are outstanding value for money, reasonable weight, reasonable rigidity, and decent performance.
http://pix.lightrefineries.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=2052&g2_serialNumber=2