Looking for a tripod/ballhead combo on a budget of $600

[Kayaker72]

A great write up (Thom's) on buying support is here.

Similar to above, he advocates saving money in the long term by simply buying what you need, typically "the best," first instead of buying and selling different support as you upgrade.

In general, I will agree with this. I do not think support has the same resale value as items such as lenses, but I could be wrong, so you may lose more money buying and upgrading with support compared to something like lenses. But I want to phrase this a little differently. Make sure you buy what you need first. Save money that way. The difference here is that you may not need Gitzo or RRS. Your needs may be met with something like manfrotto.

So, if you plan to use your support a lot or for something critical if your support is going to be an important piece of equipment for your photography, you likely should save to get to the Gitzo/RRS level of gear. If not, then something else may be sufficient. Having a tripod is still better than no tripod. I actually got by for awhile with a gorillapod and old aluminum tripod (BTW, much happier with my new set up of Gitzo GT1542T and Markins Q3T ballhead). I think we tend to take our gear to extremes at times (I know I am guilty of it), but it isn't always necessary. So, think about how you will be using your gear and get what will work for you now and will also provide for growth. As a quick example, it makes no sense to me to spend $1,000 on a support system if you are only going to use it twice a year for family photos.

But, if you have to stay under $600, one thought would be to go a little less expensive on either the legs or the ballhead now and buy what you want for the other. Also, remember, depending on what you buy for a ball head, you may need to include items such as arca-swiss plates, I'd be tempted by something like the following:

• Legs:
  
  • Manfrotto Aluminum--Manfrotto 190XProb 3 ($170)...this would be upgraded in a couple of years.
  
  
• Ballhead
  
  • Markins Q3T ($310)
  
  
• RRS "L" Bracket (B5D3-LA) $140

A total of $620 +shipping. You could get under $600 if you went with the RRS BH-30 ($275) or if you bought some items off of ebay (even "new" is cheaper, but often without the same warranty). Also, you may not decide you need this level of gear. People seemed to really like Sirui tripods and "photo clam" ballheads when I was doing my evaluation.

Good luck.