[nanhi]

A lot has been asked, said, questioned and espoused about good tripods. And all of us love talking (or boasting) about velbons, manfrottos, gitzos, bogens etc.
I have some (13) tripods from circa 1937 to the present - wood, brass, aluminum. fibre glass & plastic - German, British, Russia, Japan & China made - from midgets to full sized ones.
Here's all about good tripods with photos. And the price will surprise you:-
A short, stubby, stout legged tripod is the secret - ones whose legs will not creep or flex with the weight of a DSLR + Lens - (2) Kgs. Pros please excuse with your super heavy / expensive sports optics.
This tripod has a strong telescopic vertical post holding the ball head or 3-D camera mount. I found one in Dubai for US $ 35 – brand name Cherry, model TO-419M, made in Japan by the Cherry Shoji Co., Ltd.
Whenever required I dismount the 3-D turntable and mount a heavy duty German Cullman ball head, shown in the photo.
Begone manfrottos, gitzos ........ blah, blah ... with your super $$$ prices

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Last edited by nanhi; 11-19-2012 at 08:32 AM.

[JohnBee]

A short, stubby, stout legged tripod is the secret - ones whose legs will not creep or flex with the weight of a DSLR + Lens - (2) Kgs. Pros please excuse with your super heavy / expensive sports optics.

While I would agree with your statement on the length of the legs, from a design perspective, raising the height of the load on a single support(post) is a step backward in stability and not the other way around.

And though I'm not compelled to buy one for testing, such designs have been done before and the results were conclusive with the science behind them. And so to help illustrate here's a simple test.

Setup a a conventional tripod and extend and secure the legs.
Mount your camera directly into the socket(no head).
Place the camera in LV mode with a telephoto at/or around 300mm
Zoom LV to maximum and watch the movement on the screen(be sure to turn off SR).

Now setup a short leg extended pole tripod and repeat the experiment.

Record your findings and observe the differences.
Now take place these tripods on a floor with micro-vibrations or wind and you'll have yourself some good reasons to keep your camera as close to the apex as possible(ie. the less pole the better).

Hope this helps.

[nanhi]

John, your experiments and observations are technically perfect. As a DIY and Mech Engr I am in line with you. The longest lens I have is the Tamron AF 28-300 and the heaviest a 600mm Mirror. Used with my Pentax K20D and this CHERRY tripod, I have had 88% vibration free shots. As mentioned in my post, I have other tripods - some as steady as a rock with equipment weighing over (5) kg like my Bell & Howell movie camera or the Celestron Telescope - I wouldn't use the Cherry here, you bet.
This tripod has excellent torsional stability in both the legs and the vertical post. With optimum geometry - triangular base area vs height of the vertical - a little shorter than the legs, and the weight of the gear - approx (2) Kg, stability is pretty amazing even with the lens fully extended. The tripods tendency to topple / sway is arrested by the leg geometry and good torsional rigidity even though the CG is pretty high.
I could calculate the "bending moment" of this tripod as a measure of stability.
And John look at the paltry $ 35 plus the ability to stuff it in my camera backpack - it is that small. Progressing back pain does not allow me to carry heavier / sturdier tripods.
Appreciate your feedback and the sharing of ideas. Thank you John.

[Ratmagiclady]

Yeah, I've got to agree with JohnBee on the technical end, but it's obviously a lot steadier than the 'better' tripod you left at home. It certainly helps if the parts themselves don't wobble, obviously, that's expected.

[DogLover]

Indeed, I find the steadiest tripod has no center column at all. The head is mounted to the same platform that the legs are attached to. There are carbon-fiber models like this that are extremely light-weight, fairly compact, and yet very rigid.

[excanonfd]

You have 13 tripods, why?

[7samurai]

obviously so he can give me one...

out of curiosity, how tall is it collapsed?

[nanhi]

Excanonfd: just like folks with LBA - itch for collecting lenses, I am a crazy tripod collector. Actually we lived in a Joint Family where photography is a passion - got (5) tripods from my Dad and Uncle - brass and wooden stuff, including a clamp cum screw-on leg Russian midget. (3) tripods came with my giant 20x80 mm Russian binocular, a Stargazer (6) inch Maksutov & a Celestron Telescope. Balance (5) were bought on my tours abroad - the last was a gorilla pod. But the best one I love is a midget German clamp type "HAMA" w/ball head from Muscat, Oman - see photo attached.
Zsamurai Sir: welcome to Bangalore and I will gift you (1) tripod. Or would you prefer one of the swords in the family armoury? Seriously. This Cherry tripod is 14 inch when collapsed.