It's a CB Feisol (bought in 2012), that does not have center column. It works on everything I have, including my 5x7 or 400/3.5 (rather large hunk of glass) with DSLR. Not sure I'd recommend for something like 8x10. It works for me, tho.Originally Posted by andreios
Les
Thanks! I've been eyeing them as well. I have my series 3 gitzo legs that I can use under my 8x10, but they seem an overkill when hiking with my half plate toyo that's quite compact.. The only thing that worries me is that with the desired folded lenght to fit cabin baggage when flying the tripod will not be tall enough for my height.. But then, better to crouch than to leave the camera at home..
Bob, Drew uses his tripod. He just doesn't use his head.
He had a funny way of stating that!Bob, Drew uses his tripod. He just doesn't use his head.
I made a typo. It's obvious at this point what I intended to say. It's simple torque-vector physics. Get rid of the fulcrum point. The bigger the platform atop a tripod, the better, then bolt the camera right to it. If you are addicted to tripods heads, fine; but never claim they are the most dependable way to get the job done. I use a basic Gitzo pan/tilt head for 35mm work as well as MF applications using moderate lenses, never a big telephoto. 8x10's and monorails particularly risk wobble. I haven't used a tripod head for LF work for the past three decades. The Sinar panning top eliminates some of the risk as does the low-profile Ries platform device. But if you want the most secure attachment as well as significantly reduced weight, just eliminate the head altogether. If you need to point straight down, make a bolt-on right-angle bracket. All you'll lose besides redundant weight is a pricey gadget transaction! Call it impractical if you wish; but I've routinely had view cameras in far more precarious places than most of you would ever go. And there especially, the benefits of going headless become apparent. Save those ballheads for gifts to headhunters in central New Guinea. They can find a handy display-post application for them, and your own unreasoning head might find a permanent home.
I knew it was a typo. I just wanted to make a pun.
I didn't find it punny. Anyway, my headhunter remark ... In the 1940's it was popular for rich tourists to vacation amidst primitive people. A remote Indonesian island was attempting to take tourists by canoe to stay in tribal long-houses way upriver. The authorities thought it might help to send western-style beds to the long-houses in lieu of the usual hammocks. But the handful of tourists would instantly return in a panic. So they hired my aunt and uncle to scope out the situation, since they were very experienced at dealing with primitive tribes. When they got to the village, on each brass bedpost there was
a baked head. .. quite possibly "protective" ancestral heads, and not necessarily anyone killed; but the effect on tourists was the same. ... They were close friends of another adventurous couple who took early movies in Micronesia. They had a short flick of a coastal village, and ten years later thought it might be fun to go back to that same village, set up a generator, screen, and carbon-arc projector, and show the movie. Midway everyone started shrieking and ran into the forest, and didn't return for two weeks. Turns out, some fellow popped up in the movie they had eaten; and they thought he had come back to life! I still remember seeing similar old movies myself as a child, on those rare occasions when my aunt and uncle were back in the US temporarily. For example, it's hard for us today to think of weaponry in the 1940's consisting of handmade arquebuses; but my uncle had one of only two jeeps in Afghanistan and was being chased by bandits on camels firing at him with these. One of them lit its fuse and his own head was blown off, captured in the flick I saw. The King of Afghanistan was nearby in the other jeep, which was equipped with a machine gun. So after the filming, the rest of the bandits were done in. But his own guards were equipped with flintlocks!
Too bad a Rockefeller didn’t take care on his last trip!
Bingo! David Rockerfeller became the poster child for it. But just thirty years ago, when my nephew was living with me and getting his Geography degree at UCB, he was awarded a grant from an early GPS satellite venture to do the first full north/south traverse of New Guinea on the untamed Indonesian half via a maze of rivers. But one of his Geo classmates was son of a governor there, and strongly warned him not to do it due to the fact that cannibalism was not a mere rumor. Just a few months before an overweight German tourist got behind the trekking party and became smorgasbord. So he turned down the offer, but later accepted an invitation to a wholly unexplored section of the Chinese Karakoram by the GPS firm. All that GPS technology failed miserably, and two sherpas flown in from Nepal got lost on the glaciers. Remarkably, they were both found alive and not in a crevasse, even though snow-blinded. Nor were they allowed to take any film pictures. By contract, any images had to be live-transmitted via satellite for publicity purposes. Lots didn't get through, and the ones that did were horribly fuzzy. Sad,because what was lost included some first ascents of very high remote peaks. Somebody did sneak a film Nikon in a jacket but got sued afterwards. Bob, have you seen the big coffee table book of the Karakoram done by Shirahata using a 4x5 Technika? Quite a project!
No, had not seen it. Wished I had! I have too many books now and am trying to downsize the collection, including the original edition of The Decisive Moment! Hopefully I might find a dealer here near Atlanta.
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