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Tripods
sleeves make the top one the tightest if you use about the same force on all 3 locks
and it works beautifully.)
Note that RRS is under new ownership and also has significantly upgraded its
products, as well as being (so far) a bit more user friendly. Acratech is also now
making plates, although not as wide a selection as the RRS range.
-- Charles Mackay, May 15, 2003
There are professional ball heads made by a company called Markins... There is
supposed to be one model, the M10 that has comparable stats to the Arca-Swiss B1,
but for lower cost. Has anyone had any experience with these ball heads?
http://www.markins.com/2.0/eng/products/ballheads/m10.html
thanks,
Yong
-- Yong Pong, January 8, 2004
Studio stands ain't that expensive. I bought a three meter high Plaubel ST10/6
studio stand from (I think) the seventies for 151€. Where? On ebay! Okay, it's not
in a fancy and modern black, but at 60+ kilos and locking mechanisms for all
available movements, it's a wonderful piece of equipment, easily surpassing
anything else in stability and ease of use. If studio photography is your thing, that
is. Forget about new, at 2k€ new they're beyond the scope of the very dedicated
amateuer. But then, which amateur wouldn't rather spend that kind of money on a
fancy lens? Why are they so cheap, used? Because of their weight and size. So If
you have the ability to pick it up with your own car, you can get a wonderful
"little" helper in obtaining better images. I can't count the times I had a hassle with
my old Linhof tripod, getting a decent shot from somewhere above the subject, not
talking about rapid changes in height or camera positioning.
One more thing, any tripod without a spreader is completely useless, especially
those which allow you to put the legs at different angles. This tiny piece of
equipment will increase the structural stability immensely, I can't understand why
someone buys a tripod without one and then dares to complain. I personally like the
spreaders which attach to the middle, some people prefer the variant, which is fixed
to the feet of the tripod. Check out this link, maybe a picture makes it clearer:
http://www.manfrotto.com/product/templates/templates.php3?
http://www.photo.net/equipment/tripods/philg (50 of 53)7/3/2005 2:21:13 AM