What tripod is a good one for beginner?

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Martylaa

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Martin
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Hi all just got a Canon 550d with basic lens, looking for a nice sturdy lightweight tripod, any pointers for me nothing about £90 please.
 
Redsnapper with the ball head, £100 I think (but you may be able to get TP discount). Excellent for the money imo.
 
Jessops doing a carbon fibre one for about £79.
 
Martylaa said:
Hi all just got a Canon 550d with basic lens, looking for a nice sturdy lightweight tripod, any pointers for me nothing about £90 please.
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Rule of tripods Ive seen on here before:

Sturdy, light, cheap,

pick any 2.
 
bought a manfrotto 718B last month for travel purposes.

fantastic quality, lightweight, great for starters, paid £50. its an older model, if you lucky you may find some on ebay
 
Like the look of the redsnapper ones, what's this about a discount for forum members?
 
DorsetDude said:
Hi Dan

Do you not find nearly 2kg plus 600g for the head a lot of weight to cart round?

I sometimes carry a Birding spotting scope too and my rucksack gets bloody heavy!:gag:

Cheers
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Nope - I like my spinach :)

The RS bag is uber comfortable too.
 
Love my redsnapper.:):thumbs:
 
I don't find the weight of the RS one to be a problem - it's not mega light but as said, you are not going to get one which is cheap, light and sturdy.

For a very cheap/light option you could get a Gorillapod copy off dealextreme, plus a mini ball head
 
I've got a Manfrotto. I like it even though it's still pretty bulky when folded.
 
Steve W said:
How good is the tripod ?? Seems a steel for a carbon tripod...
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Not great, returned mine after a day. The centre column started to flake- and that was me playing around with it in my front room.

I would recommend Benro tri-pods, the one I have only weighs 1.5 kg but can take a 4-6kg load. Even the jessops CF one weighs around 1.7 kg
 
Did anyone mention a redsnapper?
 
How do people find the twist locks on the legs with the Redsnapper's ??.
 
Steve W said:
How do people find the twist locks on the legs with the Redsnapper's ??.
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They're near the bottom of the legs, and slightly larger than the rest of the leg. Pretty sure I could find them with my eyes closed :lol: :lol: :lol:



They're actually no problem, just remember that you only need to loosen them, not completely undo them, or you will faff about for a few minutes trying to put the little plastic pieces back together again :thumbs:
 
Steve W said:
How do people find the twist locks on the legs with the Redsnapper's ??.
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Fine. 1/4 to 1/2 a turn and they work well :) They also do a more expensive tripod with butterfly locks.
 
I'm also looking at getting a decent tripod.

On the red snapper I can't see any leveling indicators (or am I missing something?).

Does this matter, in your opinion?
 
PCPhil said:
I'm also looking at getting a decent tripod.

On the red snapper I can't see any leveling indicators (or am I missing something?).

Does this matter, in your opinion?
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There is a bubble, but I rarely use it. I just use the Live View on my camera screen to check it's level
 
What are the Redsnapper tripods like compared to say the Manfrotto 190XProbB tripod (which was the other one I was looking at) ??
 
Texy said:
Also check out this recent thread :
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=263280


Texy
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Thanks Texy, this thread is also mostly about the Redsnapper. Although I don't doubt them and it sounds like a great piece of kit for the money, I'd like to hear other opinions on say the Manfrotto 190 pro range.

Is it more sturdy than the Redsnapper?
Is it worth the extra money over the Redsnapper?
Is it more versatile than the Redsnapper?

Cheers

Steve
 
Steve W said:
... I'd like to hear other opinions on say the Manfrotto 190 pro range.

Is it more sturdy than the Redsnapper?
Is it worth the extra money over the Redsnapper?
Is it more versatile than the Redsnapper?

Cheers

Steve
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:agree:

Me too. Been eyeing up the 190 for a while now.
 
Steve W said:
How do people find the twist locks on the legs with the Redsnapper's ??.
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I got rid of mine because of them.

At the time redsnapper didn't do a flip lock model and I found the twists were not as grippy as I would like in the cold weather - had to tighten them quite hard which meant for me putting up and taking down was time consuming and when wearing gloves difficult to do right.
 
Having gone through a lot of tripods in the last three years the only ones worth having are the ball-head ones. The fixed head type rely on the surface you are setting up on as being flat other wise you end up spending a lot of time setting the tripod up to get the picture alignment straight rather than setting the camera and taking pictures. The tripod becomes a liability rather than an aid.

So really it comes done to do where you want to use the tripod outside (uneven surfaces) then really a ball-head is the way to go.

When you have more money the second 'must have' is the weight of the tripod a carbon fibre can be carried all day barley noticing its there. An aluminium weights more and over the course of a day will make its presence felt.

Things to think of later as you get heavier lens (generally £1000+) you need a more substantial tripod to take the extra weight to stop the tripod flexing.


Mike
 
Thanks for the advice...

Mike,
That's why I'm trying to find out what Manfrotto is like, it it worth spending a bit extra on that with say a ball head over the cheaper tripods.

I'd like to use the tripod indoors and outside.

The 190 is slightly lighter than the RS equivalent (almost 200g) as well .
 
If you want light and portable, don't get the boggo redsnapper. Its not light and the 3 section version is not very portable either. Good for sticking in the boot and using once your parked up. Not good for carrying around all day. I got a giottos vitruvian for that but it wasn't cheap.
 
menthel said:
If you want light and portable, don't get the boggo redsnapper. Its not light and the 3 section version is not very portable either. Good for sticking in the boot and using once your parked up. Not good for carrying around all day. I got a giottos vitruvian for that but it wasn't cheap.
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Yeah, I had heard they were heavy from others. Looked at the giottos vitruvian and looks good apart from the twist lock legs that put me off.

Anyone got a Mf 190 Pro that wishes to share there experience with it??
 
Martylaa said:
what makes a ball head so much better then?
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If you have a good one - complete ease of adjustment.

Unlock, position the camera EXACTLY where you want it, lock. Camera doesn't move. No need to faff about adjusting multiple axis individually.
 
I've just changed from a pan tilt to a ball head, and I wish I'd done it years ago! Its so much easier to use.
I've got a Manfrotto 190xprob, but is the only decent tripod I've ever had (apart from a Benbo, which is quite frankly insane). The horizontal axis stem is nice for some angles which adds versatility.
 
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