Photography Camera dudes

Moriath

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looking to get a tripod for my nikon d7000. Want a light weight travel on that I can carry with me.

I got 70 quid token. But can go a bit higher.

What should I be looking at for a good one? Materials? Quality?

Cheers
 

Rubber Bullets

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What you want is light, cheap and stable. Unfortunately you can have any two, but not all three. Having said that it does depend on what you want it to do. If you want to do 2 or 3 hours worth of star trails the you need very steady support, if you only want something to hold your camera for daytime timer group shots with you in then you won't need anything as good.

In terms of materials carbon fibre is light and can be very stable, the ideal travel tripod, but vary from pricey to hellish expensive. Aluminium is cheaper and can also be very good, but will be heavier.

I was very lucky to get a Giottos Silk Road carbon tripod for £129 from Wex a few weeks back, but it was on special and is now back up to £180 or so. Still good for the money. I also have an old Manfrotto 055 ali tripod that is a bit more stable than the Giottos, but over a kilo heavier so I know which one will be in my suitcase.

Remember you can always hang a heavy weight under the camera, and not extend the centre column and you will improve the stability of any tripod.

Hope that helps.

RB
 

caLLous

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RB is quite right; you can have any 2 of those 3 things but never all 3. I would probably go for light and stable - light because you're travelling with it and might be lugging it about a lot and stable because... it's one of the main points of a tripod in the first place, especially if you're doing anything with long exposures or stars/fireworks/etc. I was lucky enough to get a very nice Gitzo tripod a few years ago for a very good price (relatively speaking).

Also, you might well have to factor in a head to go between the tripod and your camera. Look for a deal with both included, like this Manfrotto (I have no idea if it's decent or not but it's got good reviews on Wex).
 

Moriath

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Yeah looking for,light and stable. Not like night long exposure stuff but day lite things mainly
 

old.user4556

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I've got multiple tripods because not any one tripod is good at everything.

My travel tripod is a Velbon Ultra Maxi-L (it's an older model, but there are new equivalents) - it's been to New York with me twice and it's light / small enough to carry all day long. It weighs under 1 kg and is 36cm when closed. You should be able to find one of these somewhere for ~£80, but be careful with total weight - if you're using heavy equipment then it might not be suitable for you. It's also not great in strong winds so if you're a coast hugging photographer then it's not the right tripod for you.

My regular workhorse is a Manfrotto carbon fibre which is light, very stable and I can carry it up Munros and back without it every feeling heavy. However, it did cost a small fortune but it'll stay with me for life.

Looks like the up-to-date version of my Velbon is the Velbon Ultra Rexi L but it's a good £40 more than you've got in your budget. Looks like they've improved on the design to take a much higher weight, whilst maintaining a light and compact design. In my opinion, it's worth stretching as you'll get a lot of mileage out of it.

Edit: you'll also need to get a head for it, so it's going to be a good £150. Maybe try to get the older model that'll come with a free head?
 

Fweddy

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Red Snapper do pretty good budget tripods. Some of them you can unscrew one leg and use it as a monopod, which may or may not be useful for you depending on what you're doing.
 

Moriath

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I've got multiple tripods because not any one tripod is good at everything.

My travel tripod is a Velbon Ultra Maxi-L (it's an older model, but there are new equivalents) - it's been to New York with me twice and it's light / small enough to carry all day long. It weighs under 1 kg and is 36cm when closed. You should be able to find one of these somewhere for ~£80, but be careful with total weight - if you're using heavy equipment then it might not be suitable for you. It's also not great in strong winds so if you're a coast hugging photographer then it's not the right tripod for you.

My regular workhorse is a Manfrotto carbon fibre which is light, very stable and I can carry it up Munros and back without it every feeling heavy. However, it did cost a small fortune but it'll stay with me for life.

Looks like the up-to-date version of my Velbon is the Velbon Ultra Rexi L but it's a good £40 more than you've got in your budget. Looks like they've improved on the design to take a much higher weight, whilst maintaining a light and compact design. In my opinion, it's worth stretching as you'll get a lot of mileage out of it.

Edit: you'll also need to get a head for it, so it's going to be a good £150. Maybe try to get the older model that'll come with a free head?
I didn't realise that tripods would come without heads. I assumed that you would be able to attach a camera straight to them. I guess when your talking head it's the gimble bit that the camera attaches too.

There are differences to look out for in them?
 

caLLous

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If you attached the camera straight to the tripod you wouldn't have any flexibility regarding what direction your camera was pointing in, which would be a royal pain when lining up a shot.

Look for a simple ball head, you're probably looking at at least £30 (example).
 

Moriath

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If you attached the camera straight to the tripod you wouldn't have any flexibility regarding what direction your camera was pointing in, which would be a royal pain when lining up a shot.

Look for a simple ball head, you're probably looking at at least £30 (example).
Ofcourse. But I assumed. 'Wrongly' that the tripod would come with a suitable ball head or similar
 

Rubber Bullets

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The irony is that the cheaper the tripod the more likely it is to come with a head. People who but the more expensive ones will generally either have a variety of heads already, or will have a clearer idea of exactly which they need at least. I reckon e bay is a good place to pick up a decent second hand simple ball head.

RB
 

TdC

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you need a three legged thing. that is the only tripod for you. END OF THE INTERNETS!
 

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