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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Author
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Topic: Buying a New Tripod
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 10-02-2009 10:37 PM
I'm fixing to buy a new tripod. An expensive one. I know at least a few long time FT members are pretty serious about photography. So I'm looking for some feedback on this decision.
My current tripod is a carbon fiber model made by Hakuba. It cost $300 new and has worked well in general use for the past several years. It's light, small, convenient. I'll probably keep it as a backup of sorts.
However, this Hakuba model just doesn't cut it anymore in terms of stability for some of the photography stuff I've been doing lately, such as creating long exposure HDR images. This tripod has a little too much play in it for 21 megapixel images to register precisely, especially with Oklahoma winds as a factor.
After doing a lot of photography store browsing and reading, I have my new tripod choice narrowed down to two models made by Gitzo: the GT3530LS and GT5541LS.
Any FT members own a Gitzo tripod, particularly one of these models?
I'm almost sold on the GT3530LS model. It costs a little over $700. The tripod has no potentially wobbly, flexing rapid rising column, although you can add one if you like since this is a "systematic" model. The tripod comes standard with a flat plate that can hold a ball head, gimbal head, platform for a laptop computer or other accessories.
BUT $700 is a lot of money to spend on a tripod. If you're willing to spend that much on a tripod, especially one that doesn't even come with the head to hold the camera, then what's another $200 for Gitzo's even better 5-series model?
That's where I have to consider the GT5541LS. It's bigger. It weighs 6.5 pounds instead of the 4 lbs of the 3 series model I mentioned. And that's not counting the additional weight of the ball head or gimbal head you attach to it. It's rated to hold the biggest super telephoto lenses made by Canon and Nikon. But then I hear about people using those same giant sized lenses on Gitzo 3-series tripods. So I have to wonder if spending the extra $200 is overkill.
Ultimately, I want to buy this tripod and not have to fart around with buying another tripod for many years. Gitzo has limited lifetime warranties on their products. If I'm going to buy an expensive tripod I want to get the right one the first time instead of having to spend upwards of $1000 a couple years down the road when I can plant a 400mm f/2.8 on the thing.
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 10-03-2009 06:00 PM
The numbering scheme for Gitzo tripod models is pretty confusing, which is why Gitzo has a product key in their catalogs and web site explaining all the numbers and letters.
There's lot of others models similar to the GT3530LS and GT5541LS, but with different features. Those two models are similar to each other in that they have removable flat base plates and no center rapid rising column. The 3-series model has 3 sections per leg whereas the 5-series model has 4 sections per leg, is significantly larger and heavier. The GT5541LS is beefy enough to hold some of the heaviest camera/lens combinations. The GT3530LS is no slouch either, but the GT5541LS is even more stable.
quote: Joe Redifer
Bobby, you should start a photography thread or something where people post their shiz (re: pics).
Sounds like a good idea, although I thought the random pictures thread served kind of the same purpose. Still, the 550 pixel width limit for uploaded images kind of limits what one can show.
quote: Claude S. Ayakawa
I had never spent more than four hundred dollars for a tripod during all my forty three year photographic career.
Depending on the year you spent $400 on a tripod, that $400 purchase might be equivalent to something costing well more than double the price now.
The US dollar has lost at least 1/3 of its value in just the last 10 years. One example of dollar devaluation: the dollar versus the Japanese Yen. When my family first moved to Japan in the late 1970s the exchange rate was around ¥350 for $1. Now $1 is worth ¥89. Dollar devaluation is one reason why Sony has lost so much money selling the Playstation 3 and why the price cut to $299 may be really painful. The rumor mill is buzzing about Canon possibly raising its prices by more than 10% as a response to what the dollar is doing.
quote: Randy Stankey
If you're doing photography for pay you'll make the $700 back. If photography is your hobby and you don't mind spending the money, it could be worth it. But think about what other things that you could spend 700 clams on compared to the use you would get out of it.
The only other big ticket purchase I've been considering lately is a new 7.1 channel audio-video receiver. With HDMI 1.4 debuting next year, I'm holding off on that. My current Yamaha receiver is 10 years old, but still works just fine.
I do some paid photography work on occasion and am looking at this tripod purchase as one of the pieces of equipment needed to help me make more money. Photography as a hobby alone can be very expensive, especially if you want to pursue something like nature photography.
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