Tripod cost

[PopsPhotos]

I'm not in the market for another tripod, but noticed this one when searching for a replacement head.

Miller Arrow 50 & Carbon Fiber Legs Tripod
US $3,499.00 {Buy It Now}
This pre-owned Miller Arrow 50 Head and Miller Carbon Fiber Legs are in Excellent Condition, shows moderate wear (please refer to photos). Includes handle and tripod plate.

I can understand paying more for a Manfretto or such than I did for my Bushnell, Kenlock or MX-350. But, $3,500 for a tripod? What is it I'm missing, here?

Pops

[Colin Southern]

I think my Gitzo 1548 & RRS BH-55 Ballhead cost me about NZD $2500 by the time I got it here (Freight was a big part of the total cost).

[carregwen]

What is it I'm missing, here?

A friend at American Express who presses the wrong buttons, I think! Don't worry about it though. My Manfrotto cost a humble £200, and does the job very well. I can understand if you are a birder and you have one of those ghastly long lenses that weighs about 6 kilos, but for normal use a tripod up to £300 should be enough for anyone. It's not worth getting a cheap one - they tend to fall to bits with rugged use.

Someone's going to tell me I'm wrong now...

[arith]

Your wrong Not really only joking. I've got two tripods, a rather ugly cheap Hama or something that some clever dick thought would be good in silver, used for light and brolly; it cost £16 but they say it is worth £60 and it actually does its job and can easily support a dslr. But I have also got for me an extremely expensive Giotto and at £150 although it didn't cost me that much is expensive enough.
If you saw what Colin does to his tripods you would understand why only the best will do, but I'm not wading into a fast river or climbing a rock face

[Colin Southern]

If you saw what Colin does to his tripods you would understand why only the best will do, but I'm not wading into a fast river or climbing a rock face

In all honesty, you're quite right; it's one thing to have a tripod that's stable enough for a 1/2 second shot at eye level, but it's something else again to have something that's stable with the legs spayed right out for several seconds / minutes - and can sit for hours in salt water and live to tell the tail.

[Blazing fire]

http://moosepeterson.com/blog/index.php?s=1200mm

That is probably the best tripod out there. j/k

Sachtler

[carregwen]

Which tripod did you use to take that shot?

Edit: I just had a mental view of you with your expensive tripod and camera in a raging torrent, and you standing bank-side with another tripod/camera and a stranger walks by thinking "What the...."

[arith]

http://moosepeterson.com/blog/index.php?s=1200mm

That is probably the best tripod out there. j/k

Sachtler

Cor I can see why you like close up work, you get to carry such a big lens. How much is it, bet it cost more than a good sized car.

[PopsPhotos]

Just for grins, I went to ebay and searched tripods, highest cost first.

Sachtler 20 SB Tripod Carbon Fiber HD,Spreader - $7,700
Sachtler 20P Tripod Carbon Fiber,Spreader - $5,415
CARTONI C20S Carbon Fiber Tripod - $4,999.99
Sachtler Video 20p Tripod System 100mm Carbon Fiber - $4,599

There are several others in there, before we get to the $1,000 range.

I guess there are those who need such, but my little MX-350 has stood up to range work, holding my chronometer for about 10 years, now.

Pops

[Colin Southern]

Which tripod did you use to take that shot?

Nah - just taken with my iPhone

[Blazing fire]

Cor I can see why you like close up work, you get to carry such a big lens. How much is it, bet it cost more than a good sized car.

Huh? What's the relationship ? Pardon my absence of humour.

What makes Sachtler so expensive, and what's the difference between a Sachtler, gitzo, manfrotto and bogen?

[Amberglass]

Sachtler, Miller, and Cartoni are all video tripods designed to support the weight and use of smooth panning required in video production. These tripods were never meant for Dslrs which would be a complete overkill. For smoother panning and zooming for video capable dslrs, you can cheat by doing the following.

1. Mount your camera on a fluid video pan/tilt tripod head and tripod.
2. Use a large rubber band by looping one end over the long video handle, the other end over one finger. Now slowly pull on the rubber band to pan or tilt the camera in the direction you want. Viola perfectly smooth panning without jerks or sudden stops.
3. For zooming, shorten one leg of the tripod to make a bipod. While carefully holding the video long handle and one hand on pod, ease the camera forward or back for smooth seamless zooming.

[Blazing fire]

Thanks amberglass!

I did not know that there was a difference between a video and still tripod. However, I'm still unclear why a tripod designed for stills should not be used for videocameras. The tripods are just the legs; So if I use a pan/tilt head on a gitzo, it should be as good as a Sachtler on the same head. Why is this incorrect?

Regarding the weight... How heavy is a professional video camera used in movie production? I'm guessing that it's a lot heavier than a 1kg body with a 5kg glass?

[blueskyoveraquatic]

Hi All:

I am currently using a US$44 ball-head tripod, and the ball head could not hold my Canon 50D + 24-70 Sigma in place as I want it. Also, my tripod legs bends a little bit when I mount my camera on it. My friends use these US$1000 carbon fiber tripods ($500 ball head and $500 legs), and these tripods are awesome. Anyway, I have seen some Flashpoint tripods from Adorama.com, and they sells for around US$250. I am thinking about getting one of these Flashpoint tripod.

Dennis

[RhodyClicker]

Tripod cost VS. a Free Tripod??

I know mine is a Cheapie, but if you ever are looking for an Expensive one & Free, you might try this Website:

http://www.freecycle.org

The Major Rule of the Website is: Everyting Has to be Free & it is Free to sign up too! Just register for your local Area! I got my
Tripod for Zippo. The Photographer I got it from had 3!!!

So you never know what you can pick up!!! Mine is lightweight & love it for all Landcapes & Models I Shoot!!! I've taken some Nice Shots too! See the Pics I just posted on my Page!!!

Ciao for now,

~~~Rick~~~

[rpcrowe]

The Miller Head and Carbon fiber legs are professional video equipment. All professional video and cinematography equipment is expensive. You simply cannot place a set of Gitzo legs and a ball head in the same class as pro video equipment. Here is a Miller setup that costs $5,517.50 (USD) from Adorama
http://www.adorama.com/MISA401576MS....0to%2035%20lbs

To show you how old I am, this is the type head and tripod that I used for my motion picture cameras.

http://cgi.ebay.com/OCONNOR-FLUID-HE...item2565233c0f

That, BTW, is a great price because used O'Connor Model 50 heads can run upwards of $1,500 (USD) evan as old as they are (circa. 1960's)

O'Connor was an inventor and fabricated one of the best fluid dampened heads of his era. One day on a movie set, a man asked if he could try panning and tilting with the fluid head that O'Connor had made in his garage. The man said I want some of these heads and O'Connor told him that it would take a while because he built them in his garage. The man said, I think you might want to consider a different place to manufacture the heads. My name is Walt Disney and I want ten of them and when other film makers see this head, they will all want some. (This may be true or just an old film makers tall-tale).

The O'Connor 50 was a brute of a head and could easily support some of the largest motion picture cameras of the day. I once used an O'Connor 50 head to support a cross bar with a pair of Mitchell 16mm cameras with 400 foot magazines along with a gigantic 70mm Hulcher high speed still camera. I was able to quite easily follow the path of Polaris missiles using this rig. We needed to be in pretty good physical shape to move around a tripod and head like this, even with a single motion pictures camera mounted. Heck, it was darn heavy without the camera!