I finally submitted to the urge, and bought myself a real tripod + head;
apart from small hiking ones, I've been using a cheap Cullman I got for $25
-- it worked, in as much as it would keep the camera in the air roughly at
eye level, and roughly in the same place -- but the legs were pretty flexy,
all came together in a lump of plastic, and the head wasn't as rigid as I'd
have liked.
So I bit the bullet and went off to get a Manfrotto 055PRO [1] + 308RC
head; and boy, the improvement in solidity is like night and day.. The first
thing I noticed is that I _can_ follow Olympus's recommendation to not use a
cable release, because the camera doesn't shake around just because my hands
are near it. This one simply isn't going anywhere.
Secondly, while it took me a little while to get used to the ball head,
it's a _lot_ easier to use than the pan/tilt head was. (and I really
appreciate the way I can take it all apart with no tools for maintenance)
Thirdly, it looks much more badass than the previous tripod did, being all
black rather than having weird green graphics on it in places. Sure, this
isn't a major factor in functionality, but heck, may as well go for the cool
stuff if I have the choice.
Fourthly, I _like_ the horizontal-positioning option. That's very nice; I
do enough macro stuff that I can see it being definitely useful, as well as
just plain neat.
Disadvantages: not super-light, but then again I could afford this, unlike
the various CF ones out there. If I want light, I'll take the hiking one --
it's solid enough to work, and very definitely portable. Also, the leg
clamps have bit me at least once, and while I hope that's the last time, I
may be being optimistic there..
Question: because the top of the quick-release has a rubber pad on it,
there's a small, but with long lenses definitely noticeable, amount of sag
when I take my hands off the lens after locking the ball down. What's the
best way to deal with this? I assume just tightening the quick-release onto
the camera even more isn't a good idea; should I be using one of those fancy
metal ReallyRightStuff-type mounts instead, or is there some technique to
holding the camera that avoids this sort of thing?
-- dan
[1] = bogen 3021pro / 3413QR head. or is it the other way around?
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|