[stoppingdown]

I've spent three days in the Alps and I literally had a big feed of photos   I used everything from 10mm to 600mm and also did lot of macros, trying a new +3 close-up lens... Now I'm post-processing the photos and studying the results. Expect a few questions about different topics in the next days... 

 

 

First one, as per the post topic. I enjoyed the 150-600mm a lot, both for wildlife and landscape. I had a confirmation of my first impressions of two months ago, that my current tripod head is not good for it - well, it's not the tripod, rather the head. The lens is very unbalanced, especially when extended, probably also because the tripod foot is placed at the very back end, but mainly because of inherent limitations of my ball head. I mean, I've experienced the classic: frame your scene - tight the ball - stop handling the lens - the lens drops down a bit and change the scene framing. In most cases a beanbag did well, because it provided perfect stability; but only when the lens was nearly horizontal, or with a low elevation angle. In some other cases, when I had to point it up at more than - say - 30 degrees, I could not arrange the lens on the beanbag in a stable way. I had to keep it into position with a hand and I transmitted some shake. Given that I had to use shutter times around 1/10 sec (I was shooting at a cascade and wanted to blur the water motion) I had some hard times in getting a sharp shot.

 

I think that a gimbal head would make things better. But the classic manufacturers that I know are quite expensive. I see some cheaper alternatives, but I wonder whether they are sacrificing quality too much...

[JJ_SO]

How about a 2-way head?

 

I bought and still have a Benro Gimbal which I used fot the 150-600 Sports.

 

But.

 

It needs a couple of solid legs (Gitzo Systematic 4 with levelling base was good). And the Sports version already has a longer foot which I exchanged against the even longer TS-81 tripod foot. After levelling it worked pretty weel and was stable enough for moon shots. Downsides were the weight of Gimbal and legs, the transport in different bags, added to the alreday big backpack and I missed a damping possibility for horizontal turns.

 

At the time I had the Sports I was thinking about a 2-way head like a Gitzo GH 2720QR or something else with a damping hydraulic and a weight balancer or another type of adjustable friction. But the good ones are opposite of cheap and I would still have the "problem" to adjust the weight balancer every time I zoomed. This was necessary with the heavy Sports version because the front lens gives something to be balanced. Manfrotto also could have a good choice, like the Manfrotto MVH502AH. I once had Manfrotto 055 MAG PHOTO-MOVIE HEAD Q5, but that one is really only bluffing, neither really usable for photo or video and you would see the same effect of moving frame after adjusting.

 

To be really sure nothing moves after choosing the frame, I think a geared head would be the way to go, just because it always is tightened. It just has the disadvantage to be not fast enough to turn or tilt. I could use the Arca d4, but ompared to a Manfrotto MA 405 or MA 400 it is far too fragile. The Manfrotto MHXPRO-3WG could also work, but it's springs are not strong enough for long lenses. It is a wobbly geared head, but if you don't use long shutter speeds, that doesn't matter much. And to me, long shutter speeds AND long focal lengths are sort of contradictory.

 

I also used a tripod with a Arca Monoball which I tightened to "nearly fixed", but I found that awkward. As long as you have a place to put your equipment on and soemthing ese to lean the camera/lens/monopod against, okay.

[davidmanze]

There is a large price difference between gimble heads, if you are not sure what you need to solve your problem sometimes buying what's looks decent but not necessarily the top of the range is a shrewd move;

 

Here's a link for an ebay budget gimbal, you would have to look on ebay Italy for similar models. I've been picking up some decent stuff off of there recently for peanuts, this isn't peanuts but!.......

 

corrected

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_odkw=g...s&_sacat=0

 

 

I'm waiting for a ball head I've ordered at £16.99!

[JJ_SO]

dave, if you search for "Gimbal", you would be more succesful than searching for "gimble", which only is a brand, while https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimbal is the technical term for the spherical movement of something where the device provides an adjustable centerpoint. And although I usually don't click on eBay-links: The one you provided leads to not so interesting products, sorry. Especially because none is a real gimbal head!

 

A Gimbal head is the opposite of a ballhead and looks like this

[davidmanze]

 Ball-head arrived today! 

 

 The Chinese make some great stuff inexpensively these days, it's marked ZHANGSHIDAIQNG, model QZD-02...in fact it's printed in a circle so you choose the starting letter. 

It's really well made and solid, it weighs 374 gms, It rotates smoothly and evenly has a lock as well as a friction brake as well as an arca style plate. The only minor gripe was that the rubbers on the locking knobs slipped, a spot of cyano glue does the trick! It also sports a couple of Micky Mouse spirit levels.

 The base thread is 3/8" so I have to order an adapter.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Q02-Camera-Tripod-Ball-Head-Ballhead-Quick-Release-Plate-for-SLR-Tripod-TY-O7CU-/141774723460?hash=item21026e9984:g:cXUAAOSw37tV9nex 

 

 You can buy direct from Hong Kong for a couple of pounds cheaper with a longer wait!

[JJ_SO]

Excellent. I hope the Chinese also pay for your pension payment...   I was tempted to say something about "really well made" and the need of cyano glue. Just because cyano glue is poisonous and we better let the poison in China, there's always a little spot in the Yangtse.

 

But no, I don't say something against Chinese work. A year before I got the most expensive tripod head I own so far. I first had to adjust the knobs, to be able to use it. After coming back from Wales and being splashed by a joyful ocean wave, the axle of the quick release started to rust. I asked the dealer what to do and then asked him 4 months later again, because nothing happened. Quickly he replied very angry because he tried to make me send in the head directly to Arca "Swiss" in Nîmes (French manufacturer pretending to make "Swiss" quality...) and I said this quality issue is not the thing I intented to buy, please get it fixed. That was my last order at Monochrom, who likes to benefit, but not to service well and fast, from Germany and the last thing I got from Arca "Swiss", France. I hope, more Chinese manufacturers come up with well made mechanical stuff and I don't bother anymore, from which manufacturer they copied. Soem European manufacturers stillsee clients as there natural enemies.

[davidmanze]

I don't know about pension payments, I'll tell you next year!

 

 I do know a little about ordering from China/Hong Kong however, stuff takes a month or more to arrive, I've waited over two months after receiving an email from ebay that it had been posted, but the wait is worth it in general. What amazes me is now a lot of stuff is post free,

  I've just ordered the adapters from Hong Kong, nine for 99 cents including postage????? I've also ordered three from the UK for £4.09 which will be here in a few days hopefully.  There are a few UK crooks around on ebay when it comes to postage, one company wanted 99 pence for the adapter and £24.99 postage..criminal!

 I won't buy lenses from ebay though, they're not cheap and that's where most off the de-centered lenses "nest"! Everything from China has been decent and cheap, excepting some cheapo LEDS which were useless.

 This ball-head is seriously decent!

[JJ_SO]

You know the address Gumptrade.com ? It's a vendor of Mengs tripds and other accessories, has also a warehouse in Europe and delivers convincing quality with sometimes little glitches like the knob of your ballhead. But mostly weel made. L-plates for 20-40€, as good or better than i.e. Fuji's own accessories - it's not all copied, and the mechanical finsih doesn't really have to hide behind "official" stuff.

 

Also, some of their macro rails you can buy in Europe three or more times more expensive as their offer.

 

However, their Arca adpater-plates have an excellent finsih, but they don't care much about precision. I have 4 clamps of FLM and Arca which don't clapm by tightening a screw, but clicking into a tight tolerated slot. That makes it QUICK-release like manfrotto systems, but the plates need to be manufactured to these tight tolerances. Thanks to Mengs, they are a little to big, so I could mill them down. L-plates are made of 2 elements. One usually fits precisely, the other is also usually too big. I don't know why they do so, because they also offer a quick relase clamp operated by a lever.

[davidmanze]

Fresh ebay orders of the day:

 

 A 100mm straight extension plate (arca style) £8 50 inc. postage(UK 1 week wait)

 The AF-S 500mm F4D is front heavy on a tripod mono-pod.

 

 

 Clamp For Quick Release Plate:   (Compatible Arca Benro Letu Tripod Ball QR50) £4.38 inc. postage (a China four week wait)

 

  Like the birdie it goes..cheap cheap cheap

 

OT.

  Man I'm loving that lens, it's still sharp on the APSc D7100 in 1.3X crop mode, (15 Mps FOV 975mm)

I'm developing muscles in places where I didn't even know I had places! at least I'm hurting in those places, so I guess there's muscles there.

 I climbed up the cliff tops at Les Gorges du Tarn near the new Millau viaduc with 10Kgs of lenses and bodies  in the new Lowpro 500AW backpack to get some shots of vultures, it's like hand holds and footholds stuff. This created a new rule for my shooting...big bird=big sensor D750 ...little birds=little sensor...D7100... Big cliffs=little kit!

 Also with an extension tube it does great macro at distance on the D7100 in 1.3X crop mode, AF works and you don't disturb the buttyflies.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/124690178@N08/

[chrismiller]

Some nice shots there. The lens does indeed look good.