Reader's Comments - Index of - Free

Tripods
tripods. It is a crime! I'm telling you all one last time: Shut up and get the best
support system you can possibly afford. The results will pay off in the long term.
-- alan hoelzle, March 29, 2001
Hopefully Arca-Swiss don't mind I post here a two-page .pdf manual on their B1
and B2 ballheads. Of course, the manual is also shipped with every new ballhead.
The manual was attached to their email reply sent me to facilitate repair of my
ballhead after it fell down the rock - thanks, their guidance was helpful:
I eventually unlocked and fixed it.
Attachment: monoball-manual-e.pdf
-- Vadim Makarov, April 23, 2001
I'm merely a dedicated amateur/hobbyist photographer, offering the following
thoughts...
After many years of making-do with the shortcomings of the Bogen 3221 tripod,
Bogen 3047 pan/tilt head, and Bogen's hexagonal QR plates, I recently purchased
the Gitzo G1325 CF tripod (no center column; I plan to add a Gitzo leveling base in
the near future); Arca-Swiss B1 ball head with QR mount; and numerous RRS
mounting plates, as well as RRS's "LOC Knob" (a "clutch" type knob for the QR
jaws) and their 3-piece tool set.
I had long deferred purchasing such ultra-expensive support gear because I
reasoned that my limited discretionary funds would be better spent on more critical
items, such as much needed lenses, camera bodies, etc. In the meantime, I relied on
my humble Bogen gear to support my cameras and lenses. It's been said that
necessity is the mother of invention, and similarly, I would opine that an absolute
necessity should often be the prime reason for deciding to invest in the luxury of
ultra-expensive camera/lens support gear. For myself, I finally decided to bite-thebullet
and invest in more sophisticated camera/lens support gear, because: 1) As the
inventory of the gear in my LowePro Trekker has steadily increased, the weight of
my Bogen support gear was becoming ever-more burdensome and oppressive; 2)
The well-known tendency of Bogen's hexagonal QR (quick release) plates to twist
out of alignment (when loaded with sufficient weight) had driven me crazy for too
many years; 3) No matter how strongly I tightened-down the three screw handles
on my Bogen 3047 head (in order to precisely lock the lens position and
composition), this head would still allow the load to droop out of correct alignment
and composition once tightened down, most especially when this head's position
was tilted up or down, or when it was "flopped" over to the vertical format; 4)
http://www.photo.net/equipment/tripods/philg (46 of 53)7/3/2005 2:21:13 AM