Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/01/31
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 10:31 PM 1/31/2007, Mark Rabiner wrote: >A serious choice would not be Bogen which has a minute market share among >serous photographers and Pro's now. Its all swung to Arca Swiss in the past >ten years. And for good reason. Much better design and craftsmanship. >I never could get Bogens to work for me. I got good at catching my cameras >on a fly though as they fell from the top of my tripod at the spur of the >moment. Swore off quick release for good. > >Actually the ball head I'm using now on my Gitzo sport is a Manfrotto. >Which I'm told is Italian for Bogen. >A Manfrotto ProBall 308. >Cheap and elegant. Two words which don't usually go together in my world as >I know it darn it. > >But those Bogan hex plates and little square plates or ugly and unreliable >and inefficient. But otherwise just great. > >The Arca Swiss standard is maintained by Kirk and RRS and all the cool CCS >companies. Or is it CCI? Mark and I will disagree on this, as my experience with ARCA has been much more negative than has his. I am not interested with what everyone else is doing. I am interested in what works for me. And Bogen works for me. As Mark indicated, Bogen is actually Manifrotto, an Italian line. I have three of these tripods, and all are really solid and capable mounts. I am sane enough to avoid using a ball-mount, so I cannot comment on those: maybe the ARCA ball-mount is better than the Manifrotto. So be it. I am not the sort of ditzoid to use a ball-mount, so this one is a zero-sum game to me. Mark's comments about the release plates not catching probably came from the larger Bogen tripods with the six-sided plates. These can be iffy: Bob Shell once bounced a Field Camera from one and I dumped my Questar off another, onto asphalt. It is really amazing how tough a good optical device can be: the Questar was undamaged. That tripod was later stolen but I replaced it with a like model though I know check it carefully when I use it with my Questar. Otherwise, the tripod is a grand bit, as are my smaller Bogens with the square release plates. These would certainly be adequate for anything up to medium format. ARCA is neither cheap nor elegant. Go with Bogen tripods. Marc msmall@aya.yale.edu Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!