Tripod wanted for my Canon D40

Oh bog can you please send me to the padded Shell

Manfrotto is the lowest down the line I'd go.

For carbon-fibre try Feisol excellent for the price.

I like my Gitzo 1340, but my personal favorites are my Linhofs :-)

Cheers Shoot :-)

I've had a Gitzo Basalt for a few years now. I take it to work with me when out in the field. It's been chucked in the back of trucks, dumped in the sea, dropped and done lots of long haul flights. It looks a bit bruised, but it's been faultless and is relatively light. I'm sure there are more stable tripods, but I'm neve sure how important that is if not using lumpy lenses.

I'd buy another tomorrow if I lost it.

Pricewise out of my league Matt but thanks for the info. It wouldn't get the grief that yours gets, more likely to get ice cream on or dog hair ;-)

I see it finally made it across

I have Manfrotto Magfiber Carbon (MF3?). It works well and the lever-locks on the legs are fast and have been trouble free. The amount of leg-splay is adjustable in steps, but it is not as flexible as some. The mast can be vertical, horizontal or inverted underneath. I have a variety of heads. I use a ball head most of the time. The quick release system is also convenient. No complaints.

Diccus,
a little more info on your usage would be helpfull. Shooting birds-in-flight with big tele is not the same as shooting portrais in an amateur studio.

quote:

Originally posted by winkyincanada:
I have Manfrotto Magfiber Carbon (MF3?). It works well and the lever-locks on the legs are fast and have been trouble free. The amount of leg-splay is adjustable in steps, but it is not as flexible as some. The mast can be vertical, horizontal or inverted underneath. I have a variety of heads. I use a ball head most of the time. The quick release system is also convenient. No complaints.

I should add that it works fine with my 400mm f2.8 AFS Nikkor. Just.

Diccus
Similar comment to Manu - how you intend to use it will dictate critical things like how light does it have to be ie do you need to spend extra on carbon fibre for hiking, or will it be used around the home.
I have a Gitzo which is fab but cost £££ - my previous Slik was just as good around the house and cost a fraction.
Peter

Chaps/Chapessess

I rarely get too far these days so would just need/want it for the odd scenic shot, maybe for the odd home portrait or the kids at the beach. Not really thought about the use too much. I guess that means something fairly basic. I'm not a professional. Clearly. ;-)

Diccus

Do you need one at all! A couple of fast lenses and a high iso might be better for you. I bought a Canon 50mm f1.8 a couple of years ago and that's spot on for me. Not the greatest lens, but at £70 ish it's a bargain, and much easier than lugging my tripod around. Cheap tripods never get used. They're flimsy, fiddly and embarrassing.
I'm on the lookout for a cheapy wideangle now, but that's still going to be expensive.

Tony

I didn't mention one brand of tripod which I use for large-format my Ries tripods which are made from hard rock maple are gorgeous and very strong, but expensive too.

Show off!!

Tony

I'm with Tony here. Many cheap tripods are not worth having, maybe even worse than not having one at all.

Use other things to rest the camera on/against when necessary, tables, gates, fences, signposts etc.., and learn good handholding techniques and you should be okay for 99% of picture taking. A digital camera allows you to change the ISO sensitivity at will so use that facility.

As a minimum, if you really feel the need for a tripod consider the Manfrotto 190 series with a decent head [the head is as critical as the tripod]. This should do you fine for any lightweight modern DSLR with a normalish zoom lens.

Julian

And, also consider cheating: set the drive to high speed and shoot off a dozen frames. At least one will come out acceptably sharp at silly low speeds.

Tony

I use an old but sturdy Gitzo Classic Weekend or Reporter (I think) plus a monopod of the same, both have lasted years but may well seem heavy and old fashioned nowadays but worth a look if seen second hand or preloved. Even such a simple bit of kit can be made better by suspending the camera bag below the tripod head, using a powered winder to advance the film and firing the shutter via a cable release. For long exposure shots the use of a few ND filters often helps with such a setup.

And at a lower end ...

I had a Velbon CX-740 from Jacobs - around £50 and pretty sturdy ... used it with Canon D30 (with 70-200 5.6 L-series lens) to take multi-second images without blur.

Certainly worth considering to my mind.

Eloise