Tripod help

cowasaki

cowasaki

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Darren
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Well like a lot of people I scrimped on my tripod when I bought my kit so I have a HAMA piece of rubbish at the moment. It is too heavy and cannot move the camera accurately (you have to go past where you want and it springs back!) and its not that stable anyway its going because I got more for the guitar on ebay than I expected :)

What I am after is a decent enough tripod that can possibly point the camera straight down whilst still being stable, possibly on a boom. Any ideas? I am sure I saw something like that in a camera mag in Smiths last year whilst waiting but I can't find what I am after. Cannot decide on type of head either as both seem to have an advantage. Most of my photography is portrait and macro so any ideas on that would help too. Hoping to get it all for £150 if possible, any more than that and I will have to wait as I am not going to get a naff one again.
 
I was in a very similar situation, crappy tripod that was quite an effort to work with and also wasnt too stable.

I chose to go with the Manfrotto 804RC2 & 190XPROB combo which so far is a really nice tripod and very stable
 
A Gitzo 2227/2228 off-centre column version would be fine.

Bob
 
If i were you i'd go for a redsnapper t-283 tripod and ballhead, i use these and they are amazing fir the price, you can get both for under a £100 and alot of people on here say there alot better bthan the manfrotto's, been said its the best tripod this side of £300, and i agree hands down, very sturdy and solid...:thumbs::thumbs::thumbs:

http://www1.clikpic.com/Redsnapper/gallery_103792.html

and you get a nice padded carry bag toooooooooooooooo
 
I too have bought the Manfrotto and i'm really happy with it, it also recently got the gold award in one of the photo mags - Can't remember which one though but pretty sure it was out this month, and therefore on the shelves now if so...
 
Hi Cowasaki, have bought my last tripod - meaning one that I hope will lasts me many many years, I can tell you that you really want to save for a decent one. I have been where you are now, with el cheapo first, then a hlf-decent Manfrotto with ball-head (which wasn't too bad), then a carbon fibre Giottos with an even better ball-head (great for most occassions) and now Gitzo.

If I knew what I know now, I would have saved myself a lot of money and shaky macros. It really is buy once buy well. I hope you won't invest in anything less.

All the best.

Des
 
My first Gitzo cost me £100, it lasted 30 years, I upgraded to carbon fibre, and gave the old one to a friend as it suited their needs, it still works perfectly.

I do not expect to ever have to buy another tripod ;)
 
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