The "New Gear/Willy Waving" thread
- Thread starter Fusion
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Not too big at all, looking forward to giving a run out next week at Brands.
I have read so many great reviews of this lens, will be interesting to see how it goes. Slightly envious.
Thinking of renting one in September for a weekend. Same dither 100-400 or this one.
I don't mind it, and if anyone thinks an L lens hanging off a xxD looks like a cheap P&S super zoom, more fool them. Means I can fit it in my camera bag. If it had internal zoom it'd be as long as a 70-200 f2.8 which is a pretty large lens.
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Associate
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Just picked up my new tripod head, Arca-Swiss D4 geared, wanted one of these for ages and they're hard to find, and cost a fortune, decided to bite the bullet though,
The engineering of arca-swiss products is just so beautiful, it makes the manfrotto thing I was using feel like it was made from recycled christmas crackers, really impressed with it - can't wait to actually get out and use it in anger..
Nice tripod head. I went for the C1 Cube instead of the D4 but you're right they are well engineered pieces of kit although should be for the price.
Soldato
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£800 quid for a head!?! 
What are you going to have on top of it?
What are you going to have on top of it?£800 quid for a head!?!
A camera and lens that costs far more.
Yeah it is, I bought a nodal panoramic plate for it too - trying to learn to do panoramic stitches,
I used to use a 617 panoramic camera, and never had the parallax problem you get with stitching, the plate works well though.
£800 quid for a head!?!
Pentax 645d (medium format digital)
Tbh, it is a lot of money - but I paid £250 for a Gitzo 3 way head, that broke in the middle of Scotland, then I paid £390 for a manfrotto geared head which was totally rubbish, (the gears seized up, and it had so much play in it that it was worthless)
So yeah, it's a ton of money but... it should last a very long time and I won't need to get anything else,
Soldato
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Well I guess if it's as expensive a camera on it it's worth it, in my amateur head it just seems bonkers that you pay the same for a head as I do my body and main lens
Well I guess if it's as expensive a camera on it it's worth it, in my amateur head it just seems bonkers that you pay the same for a head as I do my body and main lens
The body he's mounting on it is worth around £4200 without any lenses. At that sort of price I would be mounting the thing to a ton block of granite with a stainless steel spike running through it
The Arca swiss head is a little more mobile though.
Associate
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£800 quid for a head!?!
Arca Swiss do even more expensive heads:
A Gitzo tripod and an Arca-Swiss Cube
I'll mount the Zeiss Otus on it with a D800 and do some panoramas or a macro lens even a 400mm f/2.8 VR. Different heads have different uses for me so I use 3 depending on what I'm doing. You don't need to spend a fortune though there are many great tripod heads about for far less than specialist heads.
I spend a lot of money on tripods/heads and stuff mostly because my kit gets hammered, I've got a Gitzo 5541LS I was using with my LF gear, it's been in the sea about 100 times, to +40 degrees, -18 degrees, mountains, deserts, canyons, etc etc... I paid £650 for it in 2008 and it's now utterly wrecked, the twistlocks don't work properly anymore, all the washers and gaskets are wrecked, one of the legs keeps almost falling off, it's covered in rust, etc
Upgrading end of this month before I go to America, probably going to go for a smaller mountaineer or a 2500 series, my pack weight has gone from 65lb to about 25lb.. so I'm loving digital atm!
Upgrading end of this month before I go to America, probably going to go for a smaller mountaineer or a 2500 series, my pack weight has gone from 65lb to about 25lb.. so I'm loving digital atm!
Associate
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Why don't/didn't you get your tripod serviced?
I did used to, I used to strip the twistlocks, clean all the sand out etc etc, it just got increasingly tiring to do over the years so I didn't bother, I am tempted to totally refurbish it though - the legs are in good condition, its just the fittings which are all wrecked.
Right now I need something lighter - it's WAY too heavy, I bought it for when I was shooting wildlife with a 600 F4, then later a LF camera, but now the 2500 series would suit me much better,
Associate
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What difference in weight are you talking between the two?
The 5500 is about 1KG-1.5KG heavier (depending on which 2500 or mountaineer series you go with), which doesn't sound like *that much* until you start climbing mountains and hiking long distances, where 1KG is enough food for a good few days,
It's diameter is also twice as wide as anything else, which makes it a massive pain to attach to the lashing points of all but the biggest rucksacks, it's just too big for long hikes,
New straps finally arrived, £8 standard charge I don't mind so much when it's an item of significant value, but when the customs charges are less then half the standard charge........
Also my card reader has finally given up the ghost, anyone got any recommendation for a decent one that can read UHS-II?
I don't mind so much when it's an item of significant value, but when the customs charges are less then half the standard charge........Also my card reader has finally given up the ghost, anyone got any recommendation for a decent one that can read UHS-II?
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Under £7 from the forest.