Was in the Boston museum of art the other day and caught a glimpse of this large tripod. It's probably about 7 feet tall and has some sort of copy stand attached to it to photograph that sarcophagus from up high, I guess. Don't know who makes it but the thing was all business. Unfortunately this was a demonstration room with a large glass barricade erected to keep the commoners out, so I couldn't get very close at all.
It's a Gitzo.
“You often feel tired, not because you've done too much, but because you've done too little of what sparks a light in you.”
― Alexander Den Heijer, Nothing You Don't Already Know
I have one, if not two, just like it.
Those stands are more impressive. Lots of commercial photographers have used #5 Gitzos for years, even for 35mm cameras. Big and heavy is best when you can have an assistant carry it.
Years ago Gitzo made a tripod that could go eleven feet and another thing that used a ladder as one of it's legs.
One frontier photographer traveled with a scafford crew who required three days to build
the support for each shot. It was for a glass plate camera with a plate about 4ft wide. A
different bit of carpentry was required to build the front suspension for the bellows each time. Mostly group shots of Indians, settlers, etc. Can't imagine what the lens was like!
This photographer must have had a good bank account from which to fund these endeavors. The logistical issues with plates this expansive must have been enormous with so many ways to mess up the final product. I wonder how many images actually survived to make respectable prints and where these plates are archived? I have heard that many of the WH Jackson negatives are in a museum here in Denver.Originally Posted by Drew Wiley
George R. Lawrence was noted for railroad photography with a mammoth camera http://robroy.dyndns.info/lawrence/mammoth.html.
Darius Kinsey used smaller cameras, but with taller tripods: http://blackdiamondnow.typepad.com/....203700e970b-pi.
Wonder how big their NEA grants were? Or where they got their MFAs?
If I had a nickel for every time I've seen that shot of the old time guy standing on a ladder by his whale sized camera, I would have about $1.50.
In any case, I'd love to someday get my hands on an ultra stable and heavy tripod, doesn't have to be tall. Love my berlebach, Great for outdoors but it seems to be like a surveyors tripod, so when I bring it indoors the legs start to splay on slippery floors. How much would one of these #5s go for used?
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