Tripods, Monopods, Shoulder Stock, Fluid heads, Wimberley heads - Optics

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Binoculars | Spottingscopes | Digiscoping | DSLR Photography | Tripods etc.


	Tripods You can accomplish maximum stability for your spotting scope, or camera setup by using a heavy, wooden tripod with spiked feet, without a center column, and with a heavy head such as a ball head. But note that you might end up leaving the heavy tripod at home if you plan to move around a lot. Gitzo have long been the choice of the professionals. They have a good reputation hence the steep prices. Gitzo 3530 LS Carbon Fiber tripod ($725) is very popular with photographers Manfrotto, or Bogen as they are called in the USA are very sturdy and considerably cheaper than Gitzo. They mainly use protruding, flip lever leg locks. After extensive use these locks might fail. You should always carry with you a wrench to tighten the nuts of the bolted locks, especially if you are going on a longer trip to a sandy destination. Benro is yet another budget tripod manufacturer. They are price worthy and of good quality. Benro C-257 ($380) was my choice and alternative to Gitzo 3530 LS. A short Gitzo tripod guide: Tripod for... Monopods Monopods are very useful in good light. But in most circumstances a tripod is to be preferred. Manfrotto/Bogen 681B ($50) is a large sized aluminum monopod that is extremely sturdy. But I prefer Velbon CF-7 ($130) which is a slightly smaller Carbon Fiber pod with an ingenious antirotation twist leg lock, and a useful shoulder carrying strap. Both monopods are insulated at the top of the monopod, and the leg locks only need one hand to resize the monopod.		Shoulder mounts This support is very useful for eliminating camera shake, and blurry pictures. The shoulder mount by BushHawk have an electronic remote shutter release that is coupled to a button on the mounts pistol grip. This greatly reduce the camera shake otherwise induced by pressing the on-camera shutter release button with your finger. You can also use a quick release plate to quickly mount the bottom of the shoulder mount to a monopod. Shoulder mounts are underrepresented in bird photography, but unjustifiably so. Fluid video heads Manfrotto 701RC2 ($105) is very popular with Spottingscope users. It is a flat base fluid video head with a very smooth, adjustable movement on both axis. It has a Quick Release platform which is forward/backward adjustable to balance the weight better. It can take a payload of about 4 Kg and weighs in at 800 g. Make sure you don't skimp on the head since the cheaper models (e.g., "mini" versions) are often shaky, or they will get hard to move when used in cold temperatures. For heavy lenses you should probably look at the larger Manfrotto 501 which can take a payload of 6 Kg but weighs in at 1.6 Kg. Wimberley heads The new standard for supporting super telephoto lenses on tripods are the Wimberley heads ($600). They enable amazing maneuverability for huge lenses, and have been recommended by the best. The closest competitor is Benro GH-2 ($400), Jobu Design, and Manfrotto 393.