Tripod advice

dannyjo22

dannyjo22

dannyjo22

Caporegime
Joined
9 May 2005
Posts
32,171
Location
Cambridge
I'm after a tripod and I'm not that sure I what features exactly I should be looking for. I have a budget of upto £80ish. Cheaper would be better ;)

Something that goes quite coompact and light weight to take on holidays.

Any buying advice appreciated :)
 
think the redsnapper series of tripods could be what you're after. personally I've got a manfrotto but the one Ive got is over your budget.
 
I'm also interested in this.

At the moment I have a cheap one from a big brand electrical store that i use and its OK, holds camera and everything steady but only thing i could moan about is its plastic and not sure how long things will hold well

What are the main advantages of spending a lot more on a tripod and head compared to a cheap alt?

Is it the weight (i know carbon fibre will be a huge plus there) or just in what you can do with it and how accurate and easy to use??
 
PaulyD said:
What are the main advantages of spending a lot more on a tripod and head compared to a cheap alt?
Click to expand...

Stability, ability to withstand a heavier camera and lens combo, durability and in the case of the carbon fibre tripods easier to carry than a big lump of metal :)
 
^

It's the "tripod triangle".

Price
Weight
Stability

Choose two and the other one will be what you don't want :) You want cheap and lightweight - it won't be stable. You want stable and lightweight, it won't be cheap. You get the idea ;)
 
Thats a great way of looking at it :) I have an ancient Slik that does the job admirably with a snap out piece attaching the camera for quick release, I would highly recommend it, but no idea what it would cost these days.
 
Gog said:
^

It's the "tripod triangle".

Price
Weight
Stability

Choose two and the other one will be what you don't want :) You want cheap and lightweight - it won't be stable. You want stable and lightweight, it won't be cheap. You get the idea ;)
Click to expand...

Yeah, this is really good advice. Red Snapper tripods are really heavy as are most of Manfrotto range. Even the Carbon Fibre ones are heavy. By heavy I mean 3kg+ ... I personally don't want to lug around something that heavy, so I opted for a 190xdb tripod from Manfrotto. Its 2kg, so noticably lighter. Whilst I would not recommend it if you are using it with heavy zooms, it has comfortably withstood everything I have thrown at it. If you look on the Manfrotto site, there is a guide you can use where you select all the equipment you own and it will advise you what you options are. The one I have is a little over your budget once you buy a head to go with (mine cost £115, although it came with a bag which I don't use, which I thought I would, so you could shave off £30).

For better advice you probably need to be more specific with regard to what equipment you own and what your requirements are. :)
 
Umm the redsnapper carbon tripod is really light, it's only 1.6~kg but that's it's problem as well. I bought one on recommendations from reading forum posts and only used it a few times before realising it's really not up to the job. Ended up importing a Benro C-357 M8 which is almost an exact copy of a Gitzo 3 series and is soooo much better but this is a bit over your budget (about £250 imported which is still very good compared to a true Gitzo).

The redsnapper uses very thin lightweight carbon posts that have major flex, not recommended. I also tried out the redsnapper ballhead that's been recommended a few times, it's also really bad with bad controls and a fair amount of movement on lockout.
 
Dan, how do you rate the Benro ?,................... thinking of importing the C-458 M8, as I already use the Benro GH-2 gimbal head.

My first choice would be the Gitzo 5541LS but £700 :(
 
Yeah it's really good, very solid and well made. From all the research I did it looks like Gitzo might have been going to outsource production of some tripods to China. They taught Benro everything needed to make them and then pulled out. Maybe this is just a rummer but anyway there a lot of similarities between some of their tripods and Gitzo's.

I went for the 3 section legs, they are more stable than 4 section and still give enough height. The 4 sections will taper the last section down one more step which will be a weak link if used.

C-357M8
3 section
max diameter 32
min diameter 24
normal height 1580
min height 375
folded height 710
weight 1.99

C-458M8
4 section
max diameter 36
min diameter 24
normal height 1705
min height 375
folded height 650
weight 2.53

The C-457 M8 3 section might be better, it's min leg diameter is 28 instead of 24, has a very similar working height, weights the same and will be more stable but it won't fold down quite as small. Not sure what your going to support or if you need it to be more compact.

Oh to give an example the redsnapper carbon tripod has max diameter 28mm but I think the min diameter went down to 18~, you can extent the legs and then bend them a fair amount almost like a fishing rod.
 
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To the OP..........., do a lot of looking around/research, or you will just end up buying more than once.!!!!!


Dan

Cheers Dan,..... can you confirm one thing, can you remove the top platform from the legs like on Gitzo, leaving just the legs and a 100mm hole ?

Like this pic., as I would need to fit a flat plate, instead of the centre columb for most of the time.
this is for my Nikon400mm 2.8 VR lens and gimbal head:

!Bds4vVQ!2k~$(KGrHqQH-EIErfj4eclCBK6GSWK5rw~~_35.JPG


TY for the info
 
This is what the tripod looks like

C-358 M8

The 457/458 will be a bit beefier but I think of a similar construction where only the centre column is removable.

I think they are closer to the mountanier range instead of the systematic

GT 3531 mountanier

I bought the short centre column as well, it allows the tripod to go lower and I don't really want to use it with the column extended.
 
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martinturner said:
For better advice you probably need to be more specific with regard to what equipment you own and what your requirements are. :)
Click to expand...

Thanks to all for advice and guidance much appreciated :)

Basically I own a 1000D with the stock lens but soon to buy a 18-200mm or 250 lens. Just starting out really and a noob with what to buy. Also head advice as well would be nice, what to look for etc.

I'm going to have a look round a few stores at the weekend for research purposes and source a price on what I find :D

I just wanted a heads up really so a salesman doesn't convince me of details I don't need or If anyone had a great tripod recommendation for my budget which I have revised to about £120-£150 inclusive of tripod and head.
 
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if you pushed an extra 20quid you could get the Manfrotto 190XPROB Pro Tripod + Manfrotto Pan + Tilt Head with Quick Release MN804RC2 (its the one I've got) and its very solid for anything I've taken photos of. Its about 2kg in total and takes up to 5kg in weight. But since you're quite taken by the redsnapper range of tripods I'm sure theres a similar equivalent which may be slightly easier on the wallet :D
 
Interesting, the reason I was looking at the redsnapper was on paper it seemed a great spec for the money (something you can't really say with photography!)

Specs below (from what i have found searching now):

Redsnapper 283 + 528 3 way head

Weight - 1970g
Max Load - 8kg
Maximum height 160.0 cm

Manfrotto 190XPROB Pro Tripod + MN804RC2 head

Weight: 2.55 kg
Max Load: 4.00 kg
Maximum height 146.0 cm

Also the Redsnapper comes with a carry bag with it as well. Any reason to really put the extra towards the Manfrotto?
 
I have a red snapper, they are very sturdy and have loads of features. The finish isn't up to the standards of my dads Slik tripod, i.e the paint chips easily and the anodising isn't as polished etc. But that really doesn't bother me and I'd much rather make a substantial saving. It does its job very well and is very sturdy, i can see it lasting me a very long time.

It is a little on the heavy side and i can see the appeal of lighter tripods, but for me its great.
 
PaulyD said:
Any reason to really put the extra towards the Manfrotto?
Click to expand...

I cant see too much to fault the redsnapper apart from the head can only take 6kg not the 8kg that the legs can. depending on where you read things though it says the manfrotto can take up to 7kgs.

One extra feature that the manfrotto i mentioned does have, is a multidirectional centre column. meaning it can slide all the way up then pop a button to transfer it into the horizontal plane so that you can then mount the camera for macro photography.

If thats not a feature you need then i'd go with the redsnapper ;)
 
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