Wayne S wrote:
At 11:39 AM 4/11/2007, Malcolm wrote:
First off was that my previously sturdy and secure tripod head was no longer!
I found that I was constantly on guard against letting the lens and camera
combo take a fall. Eventually, after perusing the Wimberley, Kirk, and other
websites, and thinking these items are way too pricey for amateur use , I
discovered the Manfrotto (Bogen in the US) head #393. (I paid around 100GBP.)
There is an interesting tripod head from Acratech shown in one of the
videos taken at the PMA show with gimble-type action:
http://www.imaging-resource.com/EVENTS/PMAS07/PMAS07VIDEO.HTML
Scroll down to Acratech. Quoting the page:
"Tripod heads: Somehow it always seems you need the other head on the tripod than
the one you've got. Not to mention the extra weight of carrying two (or more) heads
around with you. Check out these neat tripod heads being shown by Acratech; they serve
double duty. One combines a normal ball-head function with slick gimble-type operation,
while the other is designed to handle monster super-teles yet also work for direct camera
mounting as well. Shawn Barnett talks with Acratech's CEO Scott Derdick, about their new
tripod heads for the outdoor photographer."
The issue I have with these heads is the first one mounts the lens to
one side of the tripod off the center of gravity and with a 300/2.8
would be kinda unstable. The other one is just too small to really hold
a big lens.
I just picked up a 500/4 L IS and my budget only allowed me to get the
Wimberley Sidekick rather than the full gimbal head. The Sidekick, I
think, is a great compromise. It keeps the lens centered over the
tripod, and because you still use your own ball head, you can remove it
and use the camera directly on the tripod.
--
Christian
http://photography.skofteland.net
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