hear me out w/ my tripord

[777heavy]

Hi,
I use to own a cheap tripod that i bought from staples for my DX 6440.
Anyway, I need to by a new tripod,
What tripod would you recommend?
It would have to be sturdy VERY.
And it would have to be very durable.
What tripod would you recomend?
And it can't be something that could be dented wasliy.

[racingpinarello]

Can you give me a budget that you are willing to abide by? I think that the Boogen 3021 tripods are very good, and of course, Gitzo are extremely good. Both have lifetime warranties, so you can be assured that this can be your last tripod.

Loren

[shadz]

There's one in a local camera store that I fairly drool over, but with stand and ball head it's about $245. It's a System Pro 1 by Promaster. Now, I'm not overwhelmed by anything else by promaster, but this seems to be a nice piece of equipment. It has a tripod stand, removeable monopod in the middle, and a pistol grip ball head attachment. It is kinda heavy (not sure exact weight) so it's seems sturdy. The head can be pointed just about anywhere with a squeeze and a tug.

Not sure if this is your price range, but it's an awful nice tripod. Mine is a $35 cheapo that is cracked, dented, scratched, scuffed, several years old, and otherwise treated badly. And I couldn't live without it. hehehe.

Danny

[EOSThree]

A professional quality tripod isn't cheap. The Gitzo carbon fiber tripods are among the finest made, they are rather expensive though. The Bogen 3021 legs are sturdy, reasonably tall, and won't break the bank. The Bogen 3001 are lighter and shorter. Gitzo and Bogen are probably the most popular leg sets out there. Slik and Velbon make some Pro models that don't look to bad on initial glance. Benbo makes a unique set of legs that can acheive some pretty weird positions and look as if they would be useful for Macro work.
After you buy your leg set, you have to decide on a head, ball heads are very popular because they can be manuevered many directions with just one lever. A lot of people are satisfied with a Gitzo or Bogen head, and they have many models that can be had for a resonable amount of money. You could opt for a very expensive head and get the upgrading over with right away. Arca Swiss is the standard and the Cadillac of heads, heavy with smooth operation. Kirk makes their own version of an Arca Swiss head, and Really Right Stuff recently introduced a head that is very spendy but has gotten rave reviews so far. Acratech makes a very unique ball head that weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of 16oz, but locks down very tight and holds a lot of weight.
Once you have decided on a head you have to decide on a quick release system. Again Arca Swiss is the standard and many companies make clamps, lens plates and camera plates for the Arca Swiss system. Really Right Stuff, Acratech, and Kirk are the biggest manufacturers of such equipment.
Some tips:
Buy the sturdiest heaviest leg set you are willing to take with you, something you will carry and use, if you think it's too heavy to carry, then it does you no good.

Buy a leg set that will get at least to your eye level without extending the center column, tripods tend to "shrink" in the field when leveling, and bending over to look through your viewfinder gets tiring. Extending the center column reduces stability significantly.

Buy the highest quality you can afford, if you don't you will probably want to upgrade and that will cost you more money in the long run.

[mjs1973]

After you buy your leg set, you have to decide on a head, ball heads are very popular because they can be manuevered many directions with just one lever.

This brings up another question for me... The simplicity of having only one lever on a ball head would seem to be a big plus. But my question is this, how does this affect panning? It seems to me that if I loosen one lever to move my camear to the right or left, it also has the ability to move it up or down as well. I know nothing about these so maybe I'm wrong, but that's why I'm posting this. I have 2 tripods now. Both are pretty cheap, but one is of ok quality of what I use it for, the other I couldn't even give away. I'm not just saying that, I tried. Anyway, it seems to me that if taking panning shots of moving subjects or just taking shot to make your own panaramic photo of later, a tilt pan head would be more ideal, (I'm not considering a dedicated pan head) because you can basicially avoid moving the camera up or down while panning, or from right to left if you are panning up and down.

Also, I check out the Bogen 3021 that you mentioned and I have a question about the center column. How does this work? The spec sheet that I saw for it said that it is a sliding column. Does that mean the it just slides up and down? And what holds it in place once you get it to the height you want?

Please let me know it this is correct, or if I'm way off base. Like I said before, I'm pretty ignorante when it comes to tripods.

Michael

[EOSThree]

You are correct with one lever allowing movement in a many directions a perfectly level pan becomes difficult. It does however work really well for adding stability while tracking moving subjects like wildlife. It is not the most ideal for panoramics although most of the ball heads have a panning base on them, if the tripod is level and the camera is level you will get a level pan for panoramic shots.
The center column, has a thumb screw that will hold it in place. Extending the center column will lead to instability, many Gitzo leg sets have no center column. Most nature photographers use ball heads because one lever allows fast repositioning of the camera.