----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike" <watershed@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <olympus-digest@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2003 2:08 AM
Subject: Re: [OM] tripods
> I have a leveling/panorama plate that goes between the camera/lens and
> tripod head. No need to level the tripod nor is there any point with a
> ball head mounted.
It depends on your ball head and the equipment you're using. The Manfrotto
ball head I'm using now (plan to replace with an Acratech head) doesn't have
any friction control, it's "all or nothing" with the locking mechanism. For
any large movement, it's not a problem. For fine-tuning things (such as in
macro work or trying to get something perfectly level in architectural
work), it's much more of a pain.
This is compounded when working with a heavier system (such as my 4x5). The
weight of the camera will cause the ball head to move quite a bit as soon as
I unlock the head unless I carefully balance the camera while unlocking.
What this means is that if I've spent a lot of effort getting the camera
perfectly level, I don't want to have to unlock the ball head to pan the
camera to setup my framing. My head does have a seperate panning base which
I can work independantly of ball (most ball heads have this feature). This
is a much easier way to move the camera if all I'm doing is panning.
However, if the legs aren't level then when I use the panning base I take
the camera out of level because it's rotating off-axis.
Andrew "frugal" Dacey
frugal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.tildefrugal.net/
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