[snaphappy]

Hi
I am looking to buy another tripod for my canon eos600d and cannot decide whether to get a panning head one or a ball head. I like to take landscape and wildlife photos, but would like to start doing motion. Advice would be welcome, what do you use?

Regards
Jane

[EnglishBob]

I mostly shoot wildlife and landscapes and started off with a cheap pan head, it was okay for landscapes from a panhead point of view, but was all nut useless for wildlife. It was far too slow to get on target.

The other problem as it was cheap, was that it was far from stable and didn't keep the camera steady.

I switched to a Manfrotto 3021N Classic Tripod with a R322RC2 Grip release ballhead, it has served me well for over 9 years. I do find for birds in flight and airshows I prefer to use a monopod with a regular ball head. Vanguard Tracker AP-324 Heavy Duty Monopod with a Slik SBH-120 DQ Compact Ballhead 120.

If I was going to replace it I would go for a similar tripod but get the carbon fibre version, mine is pretty hefty and gives the arms a good work out if hiking in very far.

[snaphappy]

I mostly shoot wildlife and landscapes and started off with a cheap pan head, it was okay for landscapes from a panhead point of view, but was all nut useless for wildlife. It was far too slow to get on target.

The other problem as it was cheap, was that it was far from stable and didn't keep the camera steady.

I switched to a Manfrotto 3021N Classic Tripod with a R322RC2 Grip release ballhead, it has served me well for over 9 years. I do find for birds in flight and airshows I prefer to use a monopod with a regular ball head. Vanguard Tracker AP-324 Heavy Duty Monopod with a Slik SBH-120 DQ Compact Ballhead 120.

If I was going to replace it I would go for a similar tripod but get the carbon fibre version, mine is pretty hefty and gives the arms a good work out if hiking in very far.

Thank you for your reply Craig, I will have a look at these online. I have found mine is too slow for tracking fast moving objects so will definitely have a look at these. Don't know about a monopod though as I do have quite a heavy lens (for me).
Regards Jane

[dave1712]

I can also definitely recommend a carbon fibre option because of the weight saving. A test I saw somewhere but can't recall also said that CF was less likely to vibrate than aluminium.

I also use my tripod as a monopod - just extend 1 leg and a quick strap of the 3 legs together high up with a bit of velcro 'onewrap' (brilliant stuff but try to get Velcro as some clone stuff is not so good)

I also prefer a ball joint / trigger grip as by the time I'd worked out which handles to twiddle on the pan and tilt head the picture was often lost. Get the best ball had you can afford as the friction control is so much better than on cheap heads (I wasted money on 2 cheap heads before I learnt that lesson. For monopod use I would recommend the Manfrotto 234RC or similar as when using a ball head on a monopod, if its loose enough to track up and down, it is also loose enough to flop side to side, especially with a big telephoto / zoom.

If you expecting to track birds/ planes at any elevation (say 45deg from horizontal) make sure the mono/tripod extends higher than your eye line. Otherwise you will need to crouch to see the viewfinder (not at all comfortable.) for a monopod I invariably extend to maximum and place the foot well in front of me. I can then 'go high' with the camera very quickly by just pulling in the leg. Effectively the long leg becomes an near instant height adjustment. Place your feet open and at 4 o'clock and 10 o'clock, lean a bit into the monopod and you and the monopod are effectively forming a tripod. Looks a bit 'posy' but who cares if you get that perfect image.

Don't forget to disable optical stabilization when on a mono/tripod. When a lens is stable OS can apparently have the opposite effect! Do sometest shots for shutter speed - important for birds and prop aircraft in flight depending on whether you want wing/ prop blurring to show movement or be frozen.

For birds/ planes in flight use multi exposure. With luck one in 10 will be sharp and include the whole bird (thank goodness for digital.) I would also suggest manual setting if tracking birds in flight as if it flies across sky then trees then a building say, the exposure will inevitably be wrong - ussually on the best one of the lot. I recently read that take an exposure of the sky and increas by 1 and 2/3 stops for a dark/ black bird and reduce similarly if white /light as a starting point. Bit of experimentation required. Doing this may 'spoil' the sky but the birds will be correctly exposed. Use RAW if you can as it gives more latitude to mess round with exposure in post than jpeg ever can.

Now if only those birds would hover on command I'd get some good pics

[snaphappy]

I can also definitely recommend a carbon fibre option because of the weight saving. A test I saw somewhere but can't recall also said that CF was less likely to vibrate than aluminium.

I also use my tripod as a monopod - just extend 1 leg and a quick strap of the 3 legs together high up with a bit of velcro 'onewrap' (brilliant stuff but try to get Velcro as some clone stuff is not so good)

I also prefer a ball joint / trigger grip as by the time I'd worked out which handles to twiddle on the pan and tilt head the picture was often lost. Get the best ball had you can afford as the friction control is so much better than on cheap heads (I wasted money on 2 cheap heads before I learnt that lesson. For monopod use I would recommend the Manfrotto 234RC or similar as when using a ball head on a monopod, if its loose enough to track up and down, it is also loose enough to flop side to side, especially with a big telephoto / zoom.

If you expecting to track birds/ planes at any elevation (say 45deg from horizontal) make sure the mono/tripod extends higher than your eye line. Otherwise you will need to crouch to see the viewfinder (not at all comfortable.) for a monopod I invariably extend to maximum and place the foot well in front of me. I can then 'go high' with the camera very quickly by just pulling in the leg. Effectively the long leg becomes an near instant height adjustment. Place your feet open and at 4 o'clock and 10 o'clock, lean a bit into the monopod and you and the monopod are effectively forming a tripod. Looks a bit 'posy' but who cares if you get that perfect image.

Don't forget to disable optical stabilization when on a mono/tripod. When a lens is stable OS can apparently have the opposite effect! Do sometest shots for shutter speed - important for birds and prop aircraft in flight depending on whether you want wing/ prop blurring to show movement or be frozen.

For birds/ planes in flight use multi exposure. With luck one in 10 will be sharp and include the whole bird (thank goodness for digital.) I would also suggest manual setting if tracking birds in flight as if it flies across sky then trees then a building say, the exposure will inevitably be wrong - ussually on the best one of the lot. I recently read that take an exposure of the sky and increas by 1 and 2/3 stops for a dark/ black bird and reduce similarly if white /light as a starting point. Bit of experimentation required. Doing this may 'spoil' the sky but the birds will be correctly exposed. Use RAW if you can as it gives more latitude to mess round with exposure in post than jpeg ever can.

Now if only those birds would hover on command I'd get some good pics

Thanks for all the info Dave. I can see I will have to save for a while to get a good one. I have one at the moment to use, but need a ball head for the future. I like to do astrophotography, so want a good one for the windy nights and the meteors.
Thanks again for the tips, much appreciated.
Jane