Tripod recomendations

I am kind of ****ed that after dropping a few hundred on Manfroto
tripod and head, I find it doesn't really hold my camera steady enough.
I am using a 500mm lens and a micro-4/3 camera, so that is roughly
equivalent to a 1m focal length on a 35mm camera. When I try to focus
on the moon, I see it jiggling around, and I have to use shorter exposure
times than I would like to get a sharp picture. The camera has IBIS, but
according to some users, it just can't deal with *really* long focal
lengths. I would like to find a 1.4 teleconverter for my lens, which
will make this problem worse. An amateur astronomer friend recomended
Orion as a tripod maker. I talked to one online vendor who recommended
two models:

http://www.telescope.com/catalog/sea...&keyword=05377

The "paragon plus extra-heavy duty tripod" has the advantage that is
more or less a normal camera tripod. The sales rep warned me that it
might not be able to aim as high as I would like. (i.e., lunar photography
when the moon is very high in the sky.)


http://www.telescope.com/catalog/sea...&keyword=10105

The VersaGo II Altazimuth Telescope Mount would require the use of a
dovetail L-bracket (shown on the same page) to attach a camera. I do
not like the idea of the camera and lens hanging out on a "springboard"
like that, but at least this setup would allow the camera to point
arbitrarily high.

Any thoughts and recommendations?

--
Please reply to: | No nation is drunken where wine is cheap.
pciszek at panix dot com | --Thomas Jefferson

On 14/11/2012 19:50, Paul Ciszek wrote:
I am kind of ****ed that after dropping a few hundred on Manfroto
tripod and head, I find it doesn't really hold my camera steady enough.

It might be worth investigating why it rattles about before blowing some
more money on extra kit. Is it the tripod head or the tripod itself that
is moving about and flexing?

Basically you want a remote trigger for your camera and some more
damping or rigidity on the tripod. Mine doesn't have much bother
although the quick release shoe needs packing with thick paper to take
out the last bit of backlash.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

In article ,
Martin Brown wrote:
On 14/11/2012 19:50, Paul Ciszek wrote:
I am kind of ****ed that after dropping a few hundred on Manfroto
tripod and head, I find it doesn't really hold my camera steady enough.

It might be worth investigating why it rattles about before blowing some
more money on extra kit. Is it the tripod head or the tripod itself that
is moving about and flexing?

Basically you want a remote trigger for your camera and some more
damping or rigidity on the tripod. Mine doesn't have much bother
although the quick release shoe needs packing with thick paper to take
out the last bit of backlash.

I would be intersted in hearing about ways of "damping" the motion.
The shoe is held in pretty firmly; I don't think that needs packing.
Both tripod and head are Manfroto, I would have to look up the model
of the head. The tripod is their basic one.

--
"Remember when teachers, public employees, Planned Parenthood, NPR and PBS
crashed the stock market, wiped out half of our 401Ks, took trillions in
TARP money, spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico, gave themselves billions in
bonuses, and paid no taxes? Yeah, me neither."

On 15/11/2012 01:31, Paul Ciszek wrote:
In article ,
Martin Brown wrote:
On 14/11/2012 19:50, Paul Ciszek wrote:
I am kind of ****ed that after dropping a few hundred on Manfroto
tripod and head, I find it doesn't really hold my camera steady enough.

It might be worth investigating why it rattles about before blowing some
more money on extra kit. Is it the tripod head or the tripod itself that
is moving about and flexing?

Basically you want a remote trigger for your camera and some more
damping or rigidity on the tripod. Mine doesn't have much bother
although the quick release shoe needs packing with thick paper to take
out the last bit of backlash.

I would be intersted in hearing about ways of "damping" the motion.
The shoe is held in pretty firmly; I don't think that needs packing.
Both tripod and head are Manfroto, I would have to look up the model
of the head. The tripod is their basic one.

I don't actually do it since I have a far more brutal Meade telescope
tripod but the trick is essentially like that used on all professional
tripods to lock the legs together with a triangular support part way up.

The Meade tightens it up as you screw the scope down where as pro camera
tripods tend to have a second set of struts that lock down. Basically
you want to damp out the oscillations in the structure and make the
whole assembly more rigid. A bit of cunning and some 10mm plywood should
allow you to make something that helps.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

In article , says...

I am kind of ****ed that after dropping a few hundred on Manfroto
tripod and head, I find it doesn't really hold my camera steady enough.
I am using a 500mm lens and a micro-4/3 camera, so that is roughly
equivalent to a 1m focal length on a 35mm camera. When I try to focus
on the moon, I see it jiggling around, and I have to use shorter exposure
times than I would like to get a sharp picture. The camera has IBIS, but
according to some users, it just can't deal with *really* long focal
lengths. I would like to find a 1.4 teleconverter for my lens, which
will make this problem worse. An amateur astronomer friend recomended
Orion as a tripod maker. I talked to one online vendor who recommended
two models:

http://www.telescope.com/catalog/sea...&keyword=05377

The "paragon plus extra-heavy duty tripod" has the advantage that is
more or less a normal camera tripod. The sales rep warned me that it
might not be able to aim as high as I would like. (i.e., lunar photography
when the moon is very high in the sky.)


http://www.telescope.com/catalog/sea...&keyword=10105

The VersaGo II Altazimuth Telescope Mount would require the use of a
dovetail L-bracket (shown on the same page) to attach a camera. I do
not like the idea of the camera and lens hanging out on a "springboard"
like that, but at least this setup would allow the camera to point
arbitrarily high.

Any thoughts and recommendations?

Consider camera tripods from telescope manufacturers instead.

I have a Manfrotto camera tripod myself, which is fine for normal cameras
but insufficiently stable for very long telephoto lenses. So I also got
this camera tripod below, manufactured by Celestron (the text here is in
Swedish, but can be translated by Google Translate):

http://www.rymdbutiken.com/product.h...h-kikarstativ?
category_id=96
http://www.rymdbutiken.com/PICTURE/1...ikarstativ.gif

This tripod has excellent stability for long and heavy telephoto lenses,
and I frequently use it myself with a 1100 mm telephoto lens (optically
it's a Makustov reflector "telescope" but with attachment for a camera
rather than an eyepiece, and on the bottom it has attachment to a camera
tripod). And this tripod does not only have excellent stability, but it
also two knobs for fine motion in azimuth an altitude!

Martin Brown:
I don't actually do it since I have a far more brutal Meade telescope
tripod but the trick is essentially like that used on all professional
tripods to lock the legs together with a triangular support part way up.

Your point is well taken, but not quite all pro tripods lock the legs
together. Here is a Manfrotto tripod that I use for HD videography that
has no support between the legs
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...o_MT057C4_G_4_
Section_Carbon_Fiber_Tripod.html.

And here is a Gitzo that also has no triangle
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...2531EX_GT2531E
X_6X_Carbon_Fiber.html.

The Gitzo is great for fixing a camera at an odd angle or for spreading
the legs wide to fix the camera at a very low elevation--on the ground,
practically--for macrophotography
http://www.flickr.com/photos/primeva...in/photostream
/.

--
I agree with almost everything that you have said and almost everything that
you will say in your entire life.

usenet *at* davidillig dawt cawm

On Nov 14, 8:31*pm, (Paul Ciszek) wrote:
In article ,
Martin Brown wrote:

On 14/11/2012 19:50, Paul Ciszek wrote:
I am kind of ****ed that after dropping a few hundred on Manfroto
tripod and head, I find it doesn't really hold my camera steady enough..

It might be worth investigating why it rattles about before blowing some
more money on extra kit. Is it the tripod head or the tripod itself that
is moving about and flexing?

Basically you want a remote trigger for your camera and some more
damping or rigidity on the tripod. Mine doesn't have much bother
although the quick release shoe needs packing with thick paper to take
out the last bit of backlash.

I would be intersted in hearing about ways of "damping" the motion.
The shoe is held in pretty firmly; I don't think that needs packing.
Both tripod and head are Manfroto, I would have to look up the model
of the head. *The tripod is their basic one.

You could try "piggybacking" the camera-lens assembly on a small
Dobsonian, for example a 4- or 5-inch f/10 Newt. Then again once you
have the telescope available, you _might_ begin to wonder "why not
shoot through the scope and get rid of the 500mm lens?"

OTOH someone who would post the following:

"Remember when teachers, public employees, Planned Parenthood, NPR and PBS
crashed the stock market, wiped out half of our 401Ks, took trillions in
TARP money, spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico, gave themselves billions in
bonuses, and paid no taxes? Yeah, me neither."

apparently thinking that it is somehow clever, probably isn't very
clever.

No one here recommended anti-vibration pads for the feet of my tripod.
Someone did recommend them in a photography newsgroup, though, so I
bought a set at the local telescope shop. I will give them a try
Monday or Tuesday with another attempt at a crescent moon shot.

--
Please reply to: | No nation is drunken where wine is cheap.
pciszek at panix dot com | --Thomas Jefferson

On 18/11/2012 18:53, Paul Ciszek wrote:
No one here recommended anti-vibration pads for the feet of my tripod.

That is because unless you are on the springy steel deck of an oil
tanker they are largely irrelevant for a tripod on soil or concrete.

Someone did recommend them in a photography newsgroup, though, so I
bought a set at the local telescope shop. I will give them a try
Monday or Tuesday with another attempt at a crescent moon shot.

You need to make the tripod more rigid and eliminate any slack in the
various bearings so that when it is locked nothing moves.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

"Martin Brown" wrote

You need to make the tripod more rigid and eliminate any slack in the
various bearings so that when it is locked nothing moves.

That is the key. I have a Manfrotto 3021 tripod with a 4047 head. The tripod
came with the usual center pole for giving extra height, but I always kept
it all the way down and locked for extra stability. (I'd read that raising
the pole creates a monopod.) Yet too many of my large-format (4x5) camera
shots came out a little soft despite how hard I worked at getting proper
focus. It wasn't until I removed the center pole entirely and, with a
special plate (no longer available) from Kirk Enterprises, the tripod head
is now "permanently" attached to the top of the tripod legs. Problem solved.