Tripods - Just How Stupid Do You Have To Be?

How dumb do you have to be to do this: http://www.bythom.com/​support.htm
... the wrong way TWICE?

That's what I have done.

Few years back I bought a crappy Velbon tripod, center brace, geared column, 3 way head, etc.. Got "serious" and bought a Manfrotto 3021ProB with a Manfrotto 3way pan-tilt head. Discovered ball heads, bought a Markins M10 (first good move). Finally bought a Gitzo GT2530 tripod. Lots of bucks expended.

Got disgusted with my photography, quit, sold everything.

A few months back, decided to try again. Did I learn anything?

No.

I bought a Manfrotto 055MF3 and an RRS BH-40 (again, good ball head choice!). Didn't like the 055MF3, too heavy, legs didn't extend and contract smoothly, not as rigid at the top as I would like.

Bought a Benro C-158. Surprisingly nice tripod and very stable for its size, but it's too short for me. I have to extend the center column to use it.

Today, I ordered a Gitzo GT2531 and an overpriced set of LegCoat foamies for it.

I don't even want to think about totaling up the cost of all this stupidity.

Kinda like the old Fram oil filter commercial from years ago...you can pay me now, or pay me later. But don't despair...many folks here (myself included) have learned many things the hard way.

You must be a nascar fan.

Michael, slow yourself down and T-H-I-N-K, then T-H-I-N-K again, then buy.

I used to own a sailboat. As its first owner, I would T-H-I-N-K, then T-H-I-N-K again, then T-H-I-N-K one more time before I located any equipment and drilled a hole into the fiberglass, so that I would not regret taking action! I never regretted placing something in a particular spot and never moved anything.

My photography purchases are similar. Yes, I have made some blunders in the past, before I learned the folly of the ways, in moving too fast on something too rapidly. Sure I can make rapid decisions, but in those cases I accept the fact that I could later regret the decision and have to redo it!

....Live and learn....

ben_r_ wrote in post #6320100
....Live and learn....

Apparently not, in my case.:o