Tripods and heads advice

[BillLeeLee]

So I've been looking at tripods and heads since I generally shoot at lowlight or in the nighttime (or indoors and I sometimes don't use flash), and I've been trying to narrow down my choices. However, I need some advice from the more experienced photogs and gear people.

Now, I shoot with D70, and currently only use two lenses - the 18-70 mm and the 50/1.8. Just been reintroducing myself to photography over the past half year and getting used to SLRs and such.

In my mind, I'll never shoot something on the level of a Canon 1Ds or Nikon D2x (you know, the heavy cameras) or small medium format and I'll probably never use a 300 mm/2.8 or greater. The highest I could envision myself using is a camera body like the D20 or a D100, and for a lens, the heaviest probably the 70/80 - 200 mm ones.

So it's not like I need a top of the line pro ball head like a Markins or Kirk, but something reasonable and still rigid with locked and smooth to move. I currently use a pan and tilt (some kodak), and ball heads are a lot nicer to use when I demoed them out at a camera store.

As for legs, I really liked the Manfrotto 3011Pro and 3021Pro legs, those would be good enough for me, and they're pretty lightweight.

Any suggestions? Or maybe I should just stick to my pan and tilt for now?

Thanks.

 

[Creams0da]

The rull of thumb goes, "the heaver the better" for tripods. but I would recommend ManFrotto, They make great stuff. And you really cant go wrong with them. But like all things good, it does cost a bit more. I personally like the "ball" style head, you get a great range of motion, and flexiblity with the stablitiy you need.

Reguardless of the camera, a tripod is universal, and Dont fall into the trap like I did, I went with a cheap tripod (poor college student) and it broke ~ 2 months, of light use. So I wouldn't skimp with a tripod.

Hope this helps

 

[BillLeeLee]

Yep, that's why the leg set I'm looking at are the Manfrotto 3011/3021s. My kodak tripod is flimsy as hell, even when the legs aren't fully extended, and when I was taking long exposure shots at night, I was bracing the legs because it was starting to shake from the 5 mph wind. Yeah...I wasn't very happy with that.

The ballhead is really what I want advice on, because I like photography and nice lenses, but $350 for something like a Markins M10 is something I don't think is really necessary since I don't use heavy bodies and long long lenses.

But yeah, I do agree with you on the smoothness and control of a ball head. Pan and tilts like the one I'm using requires to much messing around with more knobs than should be necessary.

Thanks for the advice.