Tripod advice

[jjjnettie]

At the moment I'm using a fairly light weight tripod for my terrestrial work, but now I'm using heavier lenses, when I have the camera in the vertical position, the whole camera tends to succumb to gravity. Not exactly what you want happening when you're capturing time lapses.
My budget is around the $300 mark. Will I be able to get something more robust in that price range? Or do I have to keep on saving?

And while I have your attention....
I have the same problem when I attach the camera to the mount using a dove tail bar. Once the camera reaches a certain position, it just starts slipping. I've tried various ways to attach it more firmly to the bar, but to no avail.
help.....please......

[gregbradley]

I got a Manfrotto tripod several years ago and it seems to be fine.
The head may also be the thing you need to change. I got a Sirui ball head from Mainline Photographics in Crows Nest. It was about $140. The tripod with an alt az head was around $149 as I recall. I got it from a photographic shop in a mall. I use a Nikon D800E and a 14-24mm lens (its large and its heavy - nearly a kilo and the camera is a bit less than a kilo as well).

DPreview is a good place to get advice about tripods. It comes up a lot and there are many with lots of knowledge on the best tripods.

When you say your camera is slipping do you mean it rotates off its screw in baseplate?

Again I got this Sirui plate with the ball head and it seems pretty good.

Check out Really Right Stuff. They have a lot of gear for mounting DSLRs.

Greg.

[jjjnettie]

Ta Greg, I'll check them out now.
Yes, it's slipping on the screw, on both the tripod and the bar.

[bojan]

Well.. then tighten the screw a bit more ;)

And/or check this:
http://www.bintel.com.au/Accessories/Adapters/Orion-Precision-Slow-Motion-Adapter/413/productview.aspx
I recently bought it, and it is OK for canon FD 300mm lens + 60d (~1kg)

[gregbradley]

The Sirui baseplate I got has a ring type fold down attachment you can get a bit of leverage onto to tighten it up. I use it also to attach my TEC110 when I put that on the Manfrotto tripod.

It has a rubber layer on the face that meets the camera. There are others that are similar. It is also much larger than the standard quick release plate.

http://www.mainlinephoto.com.au/category63_1.htm

There's a compete setup there for $359 and other cheaper ones but not with the mounting plate.

Greg.

[jjjnettie]

LOLOL I tried that. I added a 5mm plastic gasket to the underside of the camera to fill the gap between the dovetail bar and camera base. Then tried rubber sheeting so it wouldn't slip on the metal edges of the bar. sigh....I'll just have to try harder won't I.

I already have one of those gizmos. I must be a bit of a dodo as I couldn't see any advantage in using it. :shrug:

[Waxing_Gibbous]

I would suggest trying to get hold of a second-hand studio or surveyor's tripod.
One of those great, big wooden ones.
Short of an in-ground pier, nothing is quite as stable.
Even a Skywatcher, Celestron or Meade field tripod would be an excellent choice, though you might need to modify the head.

Those uber-expensive, super-light CF or Al models will jiggle and vibrate in the wind or with a good stomp on the ground.
When it comes to stability in tripods, nothing beats weight.
Which is why they use 'em in the first place.

[gregbradley]

Really Right Stuff seems expensive but I didn't go through all their stuff:

http://reallyrightstuff.com/Items.aspx?code=BALLHEADS&key=cat

Greg.

[gregbradley]

I keep hearing about ARCA Swiss mounts, here's a link. I see they have mounting plates that are reasonable:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?zmam=2117309&sku=469923&zmag=373396&zmad=13593384319&zmac=1291&Q=&zmak=Arca+Swiss_E&O=&is=REG&zmas=1&zmap=469923-REG&A=details

Here's a link to best tripods under $450:

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/2812431567/five-of-the-best-tripods-for-under-450

Greg.

[bojan]

It may be good for guider, me thinks. Because it is adjustable (left-right, up-down) quite a bit so the guiding star should be easier to find.
My original intention was to used it in Cairns, when taking the spectra of the chromosphere - because of diffraction grating, I thought I needed something like this to adjust for deflection angle (3.8° in case of Star Analyser without compensation prism).

[jjjnettie]

:) Yes, I can see the advantage of using it as a guider.
But for regular wide fields, I just slew my scope to frame.

[Phil Hart]

what camera & lens are you using? manfrotto are certainly great but not the cheapest. Induro AKB2 is great value.. tripod and ballhead for the price of a manfrotto tripod alone. Induro ball heads are fine (no grease either) although i still prefer the manfrotto ones a touch more. both handle my heavy 5DmkII and big lenses no problem.

Induro AKB2 is $172 here including delivery:
http://www.discountcameras.com.au/discountcameras/view_product/31374?brand=true&page=4&return_id=331

you can spend more on a bigger tripod if you want but i guarantee an AKB2 will hold your camera no problem.

with the dovetail bar, you should be able to attach the camera direct to the bar. sounds like you need to get a bolt the right length so that you don't need shims.. or cut one of your existing bolts down to size. there should be a cheap and simple fix for that one..

Phil

[mithrandir]

I have had no problems using a Manfrotto 190XPROB and 498RC2 ball head. The tripod came with the 804RC2 head but the ball is easier to use.

I got the 190XPROB because of the multitude of ways it can be configured. Here's hoping it copes with the StarLapse when that arrives.