What is your tripod of choice?

[tgtaylor]

Gitzo G1438 without center column and Arca Swiss z1-sp for field work with 4x5 field cameras and Pentax 67II.

Gitzo GT0540 with G1177M ball head for lightweight backpacking with Toyo 45CF and Pentax 645N.

Manfrotto 475B with 329RC4 pan/tilt head for Toyo 810G and ROBOS.

Manfrotto 475B with Orion parallelogram mount for binocular astronomy with Fujinon 16x70 binoculars.

Meade field tripod with super wedge for astronomical observing with Meade 10" SCT.

[Petzval Paul]

Majestic! You can park your car on one of those babies!

[Ari]

I had a Tiltall for a couple of years, and it works perfectly with any metal field camera I've owned. When I got into using monorails more often, I bought an Induro 4-series for under $200, and it's been the best tripod I've ever owned.
Coupled with a Bogen 3039 head and oversize QR plate, I feel very good about putting an 8x10 Toyo G atop of it.
I still use the Tiltall with the metal field camera.

[kev curry]

The big fiesol legs...more stable than my gitzo 1227 but maybe not a fair comparison!

[Two23]

Later on in the morning when it warmed up the legs on Gitzo 1325 came sliding out when I picked it up to check on it because I had loosened the leg locks earlier. Did the carbon fiber expand or contract to cause it to not extend?

More likely there was moisture on the legs and it froze overnight when you retracted them. When it warmed up the ice melted and freed the legs. I once had my 1325 do that when I was shooting in a sleet storm. I collapsed the tripod without wiping the legs down, and left it in my car overnight as usual. Got down to about zero (F) that night, and next day the legs wouldn't slide out. I slammed the tripod against the highway pavement a couple of times and that loosened up the ice, freeing the legs.


Kent in SD

[Jim Noel]

Otto - the tripod Ries wishes it had made.

[Bill_1856]

For up to 5x7 the TILTALL is the best combination of low weight/price/durability. Lots of 'pods out there which will beat it on any two, but none (that I know of) can touch it for all three.

[John Kasaian]

Ries for the big cameras, a rather battered old Tiltall for the 4x5s

[I Am Luna]

I have a 4x5 camera that doesn't have fine/gear movements. Would it be smart to purchase a head that provides these movements to compromise?

ie: Manfrotto 410 or Manfrotto 405?

[Bruce Barlow]

My good ol' friend the Zone VI Lightweight with the Bogen 3047 head...

That said, I covet a Reis, but haven't treated myself...yet...