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Thread: Help choosing a tripod head, please

  1. #21

    Help choosing a tripod head, please

    you can censor me if you like, but i still think there is something untoward about a distributor recommending his own products on a website like this, especially where he does not make it plain that he is doing so. you may think everyone in the LF world has heard of hp, but that may not be so. just my $.02.

  2. #22

    Help choosing a tripod head, please

    No matter what tripod head you get (I have an ARCA-SWISS B1 and a Manfrotto 410 Compact Geared Head), I HIGHLY recommend an ARCA style QR system. This is, by far, the best supported, most adaptable system on the market. Several companies make custom plates for various camera and lens models. Really Right Stuff and Kirk Enterprises are the two biggest suppliers of ARCA style plates, but there are others. The open-ended style of the ARCA clamp makes it ideally suited to a much wider range of applications than any fixed cavity QR system. The fixed cavity QR systems might snap in place without having to tighten a knob, to flip a lever, but the plates they support are severely limited and vastly inferior to the plates available for the ARCA style clamp. Most of the fixed cavity clamps have one or two generic plates that are supposed to work with all possible camera and lens combinations. Many also rely on a rubber or cork gasket to keep the camera from turning on the plate. This is woefully inferior to mechanical anti-twist mechanisms and rock solid metal-to-metal rigidity of the the ARCA style plates from RS and Kirk. If you get a head with any other type of QR system, do yourself a favor - toss it in the garbage and replace it with an ARCA style QR clamp.

    Kerry

  3. #23

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    Help choosing a tripod head, please

    " The fixed cavity QR systems might snap in place without having to tighten a knob, to flip a lever, but the plates they support are severely limited and vastly inferior "

    That is the beauty of the Novoflex Q=Base. It is a fully automatic base for Arca style plates made by anyone, even Novoflex's ones that have anti-torque screws that let you configure the plate to any piece of equipment and then re-configure it if you change equipment. No need for one of a kind plate that fit only one specific camera or lens or accessory.

    Additionally the Q=Base takes not only Arca type plates but also takes different Novoflex bellows units for 35mm and MF including one with T/S on the front and back as well as focusing slides for macro work.

  4. #24

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    Help choosing a tripod head, please

    The very best way to chose a head for your needs is to visit a good store with them on display or a show where you can see how it works and feels for you. Not for anyone else.

    There are 100s of camera stores in the USA that stock heads and display them for customers to handle. This way you know that the head you like fits the tripod properly as well as the camera.

  5. #25

    Help choosing a tripod head, please

    That is the beauty of the Novoflex Q=Base. It is a fully automatic base for Arca style plates made by anyone

    If it takes ARCA style plates made by anyone, it's not a fixed-cavity QR system. My argument was in favor of an ARCA-style QR clamp - not for any specific brand or model.

    Kerry

  6. #26

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    Help choosing a tripod head, please

    " it's not a fixed-cavity QR system"

    The Q=Base is not a fixed cavity head. It is an automatic locking open channel head for any Arca style plate.

  7. #27

    Help choosing a tripod head, please

    it really is important to try these things out. people who have experience of low cost (under $100) ball heads may well have a false impression of how a really good ballhead, with variable tension, functions. when you can adjust the baseline tension and the increments of tightening you end up with something that is far more stable, far more useful for LF.

    i also have used the acratech and arca-swiss (b1 in my case). i f ound the arca-swiss superior for all the reasons cited above. i would only add that it is far less prone to getting snagged on things than the acratech and also seemed far more impervious to damage. you can't get it via hp, but the arca-swiss is still the best IMO.

  8. #28
    tim atherton's Avatar
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    Help choosing a tripod head, please

    "The very best way to chose a head for your needs is to visit a good store
    with them on display or a show where you can see how it works and feels
    for you. Not for anyone else.

    There are 100s of camera stores in the USA that stock heads and display
    them for customers to handle. This way you know that the head you like
    fits the tripod properly as well as the camera."

    Some of us live 1000 miles from the nearest such N American store.... :-) In addition, you so often (though not always) have to put up with dealer BS
    You'd be amazed how small the demand is for pictures of trees... - Fred Astaire to Audrey Hepburn

    www.photo-muse.blogspot.com blog

  9. #29

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    Help choosing a tripod head, please

    "Some of us live 1000 miles"

    Really? In the USA? I thought you were in Canada. I can't speak for Canadian dealers but you might just be making a trip at sometime to someplace with some type of dealer.

    As for dealer BS what do you get here? Opinions that are individual and can easily lead one to the wrong buying decision anyway.

    The best way to buy a piece of hardware for a specific need and a specific person is to go see and try it. There are dozens of companies making heads and releases and all are sucessfully in business. That means all have users who support their products. On this site you have a sampling of a few individuals and noone knows how many of the dozens of suppliers products they actually looked at before choosing the one they have.

    The worst BS you can experience is buying something that you later find is not right for you or for your perceived needs. Hands on goes a long way to eliminating that.

    As for the OP she is in Atlanta which happens to be blessed with several really good professional quality dealers all of whom stock and support a wide range of heads.

    I will even be in Atlanta for Thanksgiving with my kids and would even be happy to talk to her about dealers and choices on Friday if she wants.

  10. #30

    Help choosing a tripod head, please

    b&h will let you return anything you buy. same with badger and many others. order up a few and return what you don't like.

    or you can just buy a b1 and be done with it.

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