Question for headless photographers

[jeroldharter]

In a few days I will be in Yosemite trying out the headless Feisol with the leveling base. I will report back next week.

[r.e.]

In a few days I will be in Yosemite trying out the headless Feisol with the leveling base. I will report back next week.

I look forward to it.

[mamanton]

For a half of a year I use Linhof Leveling head with Linhof kardan 13x18.
it weight only 550g. 15 degree. Very comfortable.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...ling_Head.html

you may find it much cheaper, than on BH

[jeroldharter]

Well, just a few hours into using the Feisol leveling base with mu Wehman 8x10 I abandoned ship. Just to be safe, I packed my Gitzo pan-tilt head so I drove back to the hotel to change out the heads.

The leveling base is over 2 pounds lighter so I loved that. I had no problem attaching the camera using the large screw-in base. Leveling the camera in one dimension was fairly easy. However, leveling it in the second dimension was much more fussy. If I found that I needed to pan a little bit I was screwed because I would have to do everything over again.

I concluded that practice would not make perfect in this case so I threw in the towel. I need the pan and tilt functions. I am impressed with the guys who manage without a head. But it slowed me down too much and was annoying.

[r.e.]

If I found that I needed to pan a little bit I was screwed because I would have to do everything over again.

Do you think that you'd still be unhappy if you had a panning base between the leveling base and the camera?

[jeroldharter]

Do you think that you'd still be unhappy if you had a panning base between the leveling base and the camera?

Probably not with my camera (flatbed). I don't think I could have only a panning base on top because that would require spinning the camera around on the screw which I would not like. So I would need to add a quick release plate on top of that. In the end, I would be spending a lot of money to recreate a stripped down pan tilt head with out much weight savings.

I spent all day today with my Gitzo pan-tilt head and it was so much easier and faster to set up. I did not mind the weight so much after spending the previous morning wrestling with the leveling base. The incidental things I like about the Gitzo head are the stout handles. When I stop, I can hang things securely from the handles like a filter wallet, hat, scene framing card, etc. Not a huge deal but I realized how convenient that is.

I am surprised that nobody makes a CF or some other lightweight pan-tilt head to go with all of these CF tripods.

From what I can tell from checking out all of the digital photographers milling around Yosemite is that 99% of them use ball heads.

So yes, I think I would still be unhappy with a leveling base + panning base.

[r.e.]

Yes, I'm considering a levelling base and panning base for a rail camera. From what I've seen, the available panning bases would not work well with a flatbed camera.

[cjbecker]

Right now I am using a 3021 and a 410 geared head. I love the usability of the head but i don't like how much it gets torqued under the load of my older arca swiss. I was wondering if the manfrotto 555b leveling column would be able to handle it. All I ever used the 410 is to level the tripod so i don't really need all the movement that it offers.

I already know that the 3416 leveling base will work. Just wondering if the 555b would work?

[Robert Tilden]

Gives me an idea for a product- an audio output level that nulls out when the bubble is centered, and gives a tone proportional to how off-center the bubble is (no actual bubble used). Should be fairly simple...

If you have an iphone or pad there's a pretty good level app called "Clinometer" that has a couple of modes- bubble or spirit. At least on the iPhone it has a 'beep on lock' option.

[cjbecker]

I actually used the 3021 with the 4x5 older arca swiss straight on the top. I was using the the legs too level the camera and it worked out beautiful.