Re: Need tripod advice

[Joe Berenbaum <joe-b@dircon.co.uk>]

In article <3.0.32.19970220193313.006ca9f0@popmail.voicenet.com>,
Richard Clompus <rclompus@voicenet.com> writes
>I am in the market for a very light weight tripod that I can lash
>to a Domke or Billingham Bag while walking around Europe.  I have
>considered the thinnest Bogen tripod, 3011, with a small ball head.
>Cullman makes a collapsable tripod that lays flat but I'm not sure if it
>would fit in a larger camera bag.  I picked up an excellent Bogen monopod
>3249 and a Gitzo Reporter monopod.  They are light weight but not stable
>enough for a pinhole lens on a M6 Leica.
>Does anyone have a recommendation for a currently available light weight
>small tripod that will extend at least to 5 feet.

For the same degree of stability as the Bogen you mention, a Gitzo can
be lighter, and that is before you get to look at the carbon fibre
models. I have the G120 (Sport Performance) and it weighs 1.54kg and
reaches 1.47m. It seems to be perfectly stable even at its maximum
height with a rangefinder camera, as long as it isn't windy.

I've also recently got the Gitzo G026- its a very bendy, spindly thing
that I got for use with a Rollei 35, Minox 35 or Minilux, and, without
using the central column extension at all, a TLR or rangefinder. Just
for the hell of it I've just shot a roll of Fuji 64T slide film with a
Leica M body and 50 and 90mm lenses indoors on this ultralight tripod at
its maximum height with slow shutter speeds of around a half second and
one second, using newsprint and such as subject. This would seem to be
obvious folly but (and I hesitate to say this) the slides look extremely
sharp through an 8x loupe. This is a ridiculously lightweight tripod
(1.07kg, max height a bendy 1.38m) and I only bought it because I suffer
from chronic fatigue syndrome and thus I feel it is an appropriate piece
of equipment for me to own- though what use it will get I don't know.
The slightest breeze would probably render it useless, but for use with
small cameras on calm days or indoors, it may turn out to be very
useful. 

I'd recommend the G120, but the closely related G126 Sport Performance
Tatalux may be even better, as it has four shorter leg sections so it
folds up much smaller (0.38m as opposed to the 0.53m of the G120), but
still reaches a height of 1.35m. I'd like one of these myself.

I'd suggest getting a Gitzo catalogue. Tripods will never seem quite the
same again. 
- -- 
JB