Ultralight Tripod

Hi,

Well, for me it's the supported weight/weight ratio basically.
And it should support my camera and lenses.

Therefore, I think Gitzo is one of the brands with the best supported weight/weight ratios and quality.
So, given these requirements, I think I can call it lightweight for this purpose…

But I would be very glad if someone could suggest a cheaper, reliable alternative that can support the same weight. My personal experience is that gitzo cannot really cheat on the supported weight values because they would lose their good reputation – whereas others are selling numbers that are way too high.

"Ultralight tripod" can be an oxymoron. The main reason you have a monopod or tripod is to stabilize the camera. A monopod is better than hand held, especially with a long lens (>200). A tripod is much better than a monopod, but just because it has three feet on the ground doesn't mean it's stable.

If you're shooting outdoors, you likely will have to deal with wind and/or uneven ground. With DSLR cameras, even the movement of the camera mirror can cause vibration that can make the photo less sharp (that's why you should use a cable release and mirror up mode for shooting on a tripod). If that small of a vibration can affect the quality of your photo, then much more so wind and uneven ground.

Most ultralight tripods and self-rigged "solutions" such as trekking poles simply won't cut it with the setup you have. The 40D plus 10-22 weighs about 3 pounds. You need something more stable and something that's not going to fall or blow over and ruin $1500 worth of equipment.

While a stable tripod is less needed with an ultra-wide angle lens, you may not want to limit your future lens choices by getting a lightweight pod that only will be effective with an ultra-wide lens. I do a lot of nature and landscape photography, and most of my best shots are with medium and long telephotos.

Gitzo is top of the line and very expensive. I recommend you consider Feisol tripods (www.feisol.net). Feisol sells some nice carbon tripods that weigh just over 2 lbs for around $300. You also should consider a good ballhead, such as the Markins Q3 (0.8 lbs) or M-10 (1.1 lbs). Manfrotto/Bogen also has some lightweight carbon and aluminum tripods.

If you're serious about nature/landscape photography, buy a good tripod and ballhead. This is one piece of equipment where quality counts more than ounces. You won't regret it.

An update on the Tamrac TR406 ZipShot Compact tripod I purchased a month or so ago. While it doesn’t have the stability of my heavy and expensive tripod, it does fit in my pack and weighs just 11 ounces. Stands at about waist height. This photograph was taken using my Panasonic GF1 with a manual focus Zuiko 28-48mm old-school lens. Hit the link and expand the image to the large or original size; you can see how sharp the individual trees stand out on Admiralty Island, about 6 miles from where the image was captured.

Anyone have any experience of this tripod?

http://www.velbon.co.uk/newvelbon/pages/vpod.html

9.7oz, ball head, stands 40" tall and supports up to 4.4lb

he joe
i use the velbon vpod together with my GF1 and it is fantastic

I also use a vpod, goes on every trip with me and is the best option available for the best price in this part of the world in my view. Check out Amazon UK as they had good prices a while ago.

Cheers Beni & Roger! I've been using a wee Gorilla-pod but it's not quite good enough when I plan to take specific or lots of photos.

I think for my DSLR I will go for a compact (travel) carbon Gitzo and remove 2 sections if needed to stay lightweight – any thougs on this?

"Feisol tripods (www.feisol.net)."

They have a US reseller now:
http://www.reallybigcameras.com
The owner, Kerry Thalmann, is well known in the large format community for customer service. And I use a Feisol traveller tripod that I purchased from him for my 4×5, with considerable success.

I wish that I had a better tripod solution for weight. First of all, this is no UL thing. Currently I use a big Sigma lens on my camera, and the lens alone weighs 13 pounds. I have a big Indura carbon-fiber tripod that has a big load rating. In fact, it has to be considerably more than the 13 pounds because of the focal length of the lens (300-800mm), so the load rating is up around 25-30 pounds. When I first started using the big lens, I was photographing birds in flight, and that demanded a gimbal head (manfrotto). That also demanded that the tripod height be able to get the center to nearly six feet, which made for a heavier tripod. Now that I restrict my wildlife shooting mostly to terrestrial mammals, I could shift to a shorter tripod, and maybe to a big ballhead. The ballhead would probably save me some weight in transport. Currently the tripod-gimbal head combo weighs 9 pounds. Any ballhead recommendations to save carry weight?
–B.G.–

One that I can recommend based on personal experience is the Really Right Stuff BH-40, though for your 800mm beast you might end up preferring the larger model, the BH-55.

The BH-40 has worked well for me with a 720mm lens on a 4×5, so it might be enough for even your big lens. It's easier to manipulate a larger camera/lens combo on a larger ballhead than a smaller one, but the weight difference is also substantial, so it might be worth a look. RRS rates their ballheads pretty conservatively.

Arca-Swiss has a new(ish) dealie out on the market that I've seen very strong reviews of but haven't tried yet called the Monoball P0, and it has a big brother (P1). The P0 is extremely light, and like all of Arca's ballheads has a load rating that's a bit over the top relative to its size.

Another option is to check out the off-brand (South Korean, I think) Photoclam ballheads. Chat with Kerry Thalman at Really Big Cameras to get more info about those. They have one that fits inside the reversed legs of the traveler model Feisol tripod that I have (the BH-40 is wide enough to prevent the legs from folding all the way back), costs around $100 IIRC, and is rated for something like 60 pounds. It might be worth a look.