The tripod search
As I mainly shoot landscapes, a tripod is as essencial as the lens and filters, so I thought I should share a little my experience with the tripods I use.
For the past year I’ve been searching to find a tripod to become my main tripod. I’ve looked at many tripods as I want one that’s sturdy, lightweight, good quality and don’t cost you an arm or a foot in purchase since I’m on a budget. And yes, many of my heros use Gitzo. Moose Peterson uses Gitzo, Joe Cornish uses Gitzo, and the list goes on and on, but for me to buy a Gitzo carbonfiber tripod, would really break my bank.
Last summer I purchased a Giottos MTL-9251b with a MH-5001 3 way head, and shortly after I bought it, took it with me on a 2 week long roadtrip in the southern part of Norway. First impression was good and I can’t say I was disapointed with the quality of the Giottos. It’s a sturdy tripod with a good build quailty. Along with the Giottos MH-5001 3 way head, I felt I had moved up the ladder from my old Manfrotto tripod.
My plusses for the Giottos MTL-9251b was build quailty, height, built in bubblelevel, and reversable center colum. Minus was lever locks on the legs, weight
The Giottos MH-5001 is a sturdy and fluid head to use, with locks for each axis and bubblelevel for the heads base.
My plusses for the Vanguard Alta + 233 was lightweight, reversable center colum and retractable spikes in the feets. Minus was the lack of a built in bubblelevel in the tripod base and height.
Well many of you may think; what’s wrong with that. You have a car, so where’s the problem. The problem is that I’m not interested in bringing all my gear every time I’m going shooting, and with gear and dog along for most of the time, I want a setup that’s easier to bring along.
Regarding the Vanguard PH-22 3-way head. Since I have used the Giottos MH-5001, I found the PH-22 to flimsy, and with the lack of seperate lock for the panorama-movment, very unuseable for my style of working.
I was then back to using the Giottos MTL-9251b, but to reduce weight, I changed the head from the Giottos MH-5001 to Redged RNB-1 ballhead. The RNB-1 proved to be what I was looking for in a head. It holds my gear firmly in place and locked to position with the freedom to operate the panorama-movment seperately. Also the head redused the weight of the Giottos MTL-9251b. But still my initial irritations with the tripodlegs was not resolved. Again I was searching for a some legs to do the job.
I then looked at the legs from Redged. First the Travler-series, but since that serie lacks bubblelevel built into the tripod base, I turned to the Steady-series. This was what I was looking for. It had all the plusses of the Giottos, but with twisting leglocks at a lower price to the Giottos, and also inclued a tripod bag, not just a pouch like the Vanguard and Manfrotto. Also it got lower weight to load-capacity than the Giottos as well. So with both those plusses I chose Redged RTA-428.
Since I don’t have used the Redged that much in field I haven’t found that many minus and pluss compared to the other two tripods, but my first impression is really good.
Photo from http://www.buyredged.com
Vanguard: http://www.vanguardworld.com/
Redged: http://www.redged.com/
Toffa Berg Photography
Toffa Berg, a dedicated landscape photographer hailing from the picturesque landscapes of Stavanger, Norway. Toffa's lens is a portal to the intimate and less-traveled corners of Norway's natural beauty. With a passion for solitude and an aversion to city life, Toffa's photography is a reflection of the quiet moments and serene vistas that capture the essence of the Norwegian wilderness. He runs both Toffa and Knotten and Toffa Berg Photography. Under this author profile he writes in the power of being a photographer and not a vanlifer.
