My First Tripod. Recommendations please.

[conropl]

I am sorry to add to your confussion; but, in my opinion, I think you may be getting to small. I have been living with that for far to long and wish I would have gone larger on the loading to start. If you are not planning on putting any large heavy lenses on it, then 25kg should be fine. Make sure you can add wieght to it if it is windy out so you can get more stability. I have also heard what Denise is alluding to... that is, the cheaper tripods tend to be under rated compared to the more expensive ones. Comparing two brands, you can not say the one 12kg is as capable as another 12kg set of legs because there is no standards for their ratings. So if you are looking at a cheap 12kg set, it is not going to compare to a high end 12kg set.

As for the ball moving when clamping it down... I think that is a problem with cheap ones. Ball heads in general are a great tool. I do not believe the better ones have the same issues.

[ham]

I just would have thought that if they're happy to rate it at 7kg, my 1.5kg kit should be fine on it surely? Whilst I understand their ratings aren't gospel, they can't be (does maths) rating it over 4.5 times stronger/more stable than it is can they?

Conropl I'd be interested to know, for around £200, what tripod you'd recommend? Because everything I've found in my price range has rated at 7kg or less.

[conropl]

Ham:

If you to go with a lighter load rated tripod, then stick with a better brand because they did not get a good reputation by over rating their product. So if you want to get a lower load rated set, then go back to the first page of this thread were Nero suggested a Manfrotto. John is not known for buying junk and he had experience with the Manfroto so I would think that is a good start.

If you are not planning on walking long distances with it, then you could probably get away with an aluminum alloy tripod.

If you are not hiking with this, then perhaps a good deal (and probably what I would do with your budget) would be an Induro Alloy 8M AT413 rated at 20 kg. It is pretty tall, but does not break down smaller than 30 inches. It costs £137.

The Induro Alloy 8M AT314 rated at 15kg. It cost £118.

And a little more compact Induro Alloy 8M AT214 rated at 10 kg. It costs £94

What I am planning on ordering next week is the Induro Carbon 8X CT414 rated at 25 kg. Unfortunatly, it costs £420, but it is tall and strong.

[ham]

I think of those the 314 would suit better due to the size, it folds smaller and will still be head height without the centre column extended.

[ham]

Sounds like you are real close to deciding! The Vanguard looks good to me if it gives you everything you are looking for such as max. weight, height, etc. To me, 3-section legs are much better than 4. That bottom skinniest section makes me nervous on the 4 section ones.

Have you watched the videos on youtube? Some of those are pretty helpful. If you can get passed the one with the guy that was unpacking the Vanguard and he thought the stone bag was an umbrella for the camera in case it starts to rain, the ballhead at least didn't appear to have any sag with his gear on it.

Good luck! I am looking forward to hearing what you decide and to read a review from you!

Denise

Just when I think I am, I get doubts again. I don't know.

The manfrottos are popular and have the horizontal option, which looks cool, but are not without their detractors and don't include a strap or bag.

The Vanguard has even more flexibility, but it sounds like they should be avoided if comments here are representative.

Induro look good but their range is clear as mud. Those with the higher weight ratings are also heavy.

Three Legged Thing looks very cool,can be converted to a mono and is UK made. But they're more small time by the looks of it, and I couldn't find many reviews. Also, their range is confusing.

I think my criteria are:
Flexible in its use (i only plan on having one pod for a long while, so a jack of all trades)
Stability for current kit (1.5kg)
Fairly portable, (suitcase/large backpack, around 2kg?)
Price, around £200 depending on value for money.
Able to get the camera to around my height 5'10 / 176cm

Sorry just thinking out loud.

[ddt0725]

Just when I think I am, I get doubts again. I don't know.

The manfrottos are popular and have the horizontal option, which looks cool, but are not without their detractors and don't include a strap or bag.

The Vanguard has even more flexibility, but it sounds like they should be avoided if comments here are representative.

Induro look good but their range is clear as mud. Those with the higher weight ratings are also heavy.

Three Legged Thing looks very cool,can be converted to a mono and is UK made. But they're more small time by the looks of it, and I couldn't find many reviews. Also, their range is confusing.

I think my criteria are:
Flexible in its use (i only plan on having one pod for a long while, so a jack of all trades)
Stability for current kit (1.5kg)
Fairly portable, (suitcase/large backpack, around 2kg?)
Price, around £200 depending on value for money.
Able to get the camera to around my height 5'10 / 176cm

Sorry just thinking out loud.

The main problem I had when I was looking for my tripod is that I had no local stores to try any of them out. It is really tough deciding on written specs and opinions of others. For just about every model, you will find one person that likes it and one person that doesn't. I would say your safest bet is to find somewhere that has a variety locally and try a few.

Vanguard - In my other thread, "I think I solved my tripod/angled center column dilemma", many thought the Vanguard was good for their needs from what I read. I guess good value for the price but of course their are better models with higher prices.
Manfrotto - I didn't even realize they don't come with a bag. Thanks for pointing that out, although now that I think of it, I haven't used my bag once.
Induro - I have walked many long hikes and always thought about how light my Induro is to carry and it's retracted size is perfect for hitching on to my bag.

Maybe, you might want to take a look at what some of the higher end models are priced at on the used market. Maybe you will find a good one in your price range.

[dsiegel5151]

If there is any realization that I have come to with photography it is that "Jack-of-all-trade" items rarely exist. This is why I have seven camera bags. I also have two tripods (a smaller model for hiking that doesn't come to eye level and a larger one for more stationary shooting events that I can drive a car to). Unfortunately, besides renting (which you can do with lenses), it is hard to discover the limitations of a product without trying it yourself first. Any one of those tripods may do 99% of what you want it to do. At that point, you will need to decide whether or not it is worth it to buy another tripod to do the other 1% of your shooting. For me, I'm about 50/50 hiking or driving. So it was worth it to me to just get two tripods. Granted, the more expensive the tripod, the more flexibility it may have (i.e., carbon fiber tripods that extend higher are quite light for hiking as well). But for me, it was more cost effective to get a 055xprob and a 190xdb. My suggestion is just buy a setup that you think you will like, and if you don't like it, sell it. If you like it for some stuff but not other stuff, get another tripod later for the other stuff...or...go crazy and spend $1000+ on a carbon fiber Gitzo or RSS setup in the beginning. Furthermore, as others might have said previously (I think Neuro said something on this line before), the ball head has always been the more limiting factor for me. Sure, expensive tripods are more sturdy and deal with vibrations better, but you will surely notice a budget head causing adverse effects in your shooting before you notice deleterious effects from a budget set of legs. Just my two cents.

Dustin

[ham]

Unfortunately, my local Jessops has 4 tripods out to try and none of them interest me for one reason or another.

Jacobs only has Manfrotto's in any depth, and then has a few no-brands for £50 or so. Think they might have had a cheap giotto and an expensive gitzo too.

I liked the Manfrotto, but it didn't wow me, it'd clearly been on display for ages and mistreated, the ballheads were all a bit "crunchy" and the legs didn't drop under their own weight, both of which I put down to over-use.

I might just go for the Vanguard. If I'm not happy with it, I'll either send it back or sell it. It's not like it's broken the bank, and it'll always be a decent travel option.

Watch me change my mind tomorrow.

[ddt0725]

FWIW - The Vanguard tripod that was shipped to me in error was nice quality and the Vanguard utility arm that I received today is fantastic so for bang for the buck ...Vanguard is tops on my list for budget conscious people.

[Sheiky]

My girlfriend has the Vanguard Espod Plus 234AP I think and she uses it for her 40D+85 1.8. I think it's very steady and holds her camera and lens without any problems. The legs feel solid as does the head. One thing that was a big deal for her was that the tripod included 2 main colums. A longer one for extended height and 1 which is about as high as the ring where the three legs are attached to so you can basically put the tripod very very low to the ground and you don't have to invert your camera(hang it underneath) to get low perspective. Good for photographing mushrooms/flowers and stuff. As I said, it was a reasonably priced tripod(around 120€ I think), but it felt good.
I could take some photos of it if you're interested. So you can see how it works.
I personally use a "free"(got it with a magazine) aluminum tripod which I love. It has some play in the ballhead and I don't think it is designed for my gear, but it works perfectly for me I can live with the little hiccups that it has, but then I don't use my tripod all the time.

Good luck!

Btw: I have a ball head which is nice for a lot of reasons. I must admit though that having a pan/tilt head? would have some advantages as well. Panorama's would probably be easier with a pan/tilt head as well as vertical shots. That's one of the things that annoys me the most about my cheap tripod. But it might also be the fact that I have the most simple ball head there is