About (25?) years ago before the days of commonly available internet etc
and when I used to buy Pop Photography mag, I found John Shaw's
wonderful books on Nature Photography.
His books were the only ones I ever saw which gave specific, model-naming
advice about tripods etc for getting down low, for which I was (and am) very
grateful..
I think he recommended two, a Gitzo and a Slik.
>From this I ended up buying a Gitzo Studex 320 ( I think it is) with a
Bogen/Manfrotto 3-way head, and I have never regretted it.
One of my brothers had the machine shop where he works make me a
shorter centre post from a round of solid aluminium. He measured the
dimensions with a wooden carpenter's rule, and to my complete amazement
it fits precisely, and always has !!
Especially in the days of OM cameras, the core principle was to get the
camera as near to the top of the tripod as possible, in the pursuit of utter
stability and image sharpness. I still subscribe to that principle; from what I
learned in Physics classes, that makes very good sense to me..
John Johns (for whom I once worked, and who enabled me into my first
35mm camera, a Practica FX with Zeiss Tessar) in his still-available book
(2nd hand, via www.bookfinder.com ) "Know your camera" also has
illustrated examples which I learned to follow.
I still have the Olympus system gear for rack and pinion etc getting close to
plants etc, but I never found this stable or (especially) firm enough for
decent results. I generally have no problem moving the tripod in-toto
physically to the exact distance I need.
I bought the tripod gear from B&H in NY, based on their Pop Photo adverts.
I never saw such stable, heavy tripods in any bricks-and-mortar shop here (
and there were plenty then). They were delivered to me at the other side of
the world by the USPS & International Postal .system.
The only quibble I have with the Gitzo system is their method of locking the
tubular sliding adjustment of the legs. Sometimes it is difficult to undo. The
flip-style locks of other species are easier. I also now have a Linhof (lighter-
weight) tripod which I have carted around the world, and more recently a
2nd hand ($25) BEMBLU, but where weight is no problem, I use the Gitzo
every time.
Brian Swale.
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