Tiltall or investment?

[premortho]

+1 for Benbo, British and good! Tiltall is OK, but not as versatile as one of these....................

Tilt-All is very inexpensive as quality tripods go.

[swmcl]

Sarah,

If I might put in my 2 cents worth. Some people start a journey with something that 'just' fits their immediate needs. This is fine if the journey stops right there. If your photographic journey is *not* going to have heavier lenses and perhaps a larger camera someday then something to just suffice in the present is best I guess.

Perhaps it is a male thing to do the bracket creep thing where you just keep upsizing ...

Tripods are essential in LF and the more of Mother Earth you press into and hold onto the better. There is no escape from physics unfortunately. The more solidity the harder it is for the wind to move. There is also the issue of not collapsing under the weight of the camera. I had a very expensive Gitzo fall over because one of the legs wasn't tightened sufficiently and the camera had slowly over a matter of days retracted the leg enough to topple. Luckily there was no lens on it but the ground glass was history.

I'd recommend waiting for a strong used model to come up for sale rather than buy too lightweight myself. Being not far from a car makes the weight issue almost irrelevant - just make a special effort for the slightly longer and rare journey.

Cheers,

Steve

[John Kasaian]

So what did the OP buy?
I hope she hasn't fretted over this for an entire month all the while her new view camera collecting dust from lack of use!