Camera Labs

Hi all,

I just purchased a new camera and am looking for a good solid tripod to place it on. I have been looking at budget ones till I read many articles saying its better to go for the more expensive sturdier ones the first time itself and not waste money going through various tripods. I do agree, but even so, I do not have ~500-600 dollars to spend on a tripod.

So I was looking at the manfrottos and velbons at around 200 dollars.

But then I came across wooden tripods from Berlebach and Ries. Though the Ries are expensive, the Berlebach tripods seem to be a good deal at around 250 bucks. I also heard that they are very sturdy even when compared to bogens and gitzos and also people say vibration dampening in wooden tripods is better than in the metal/aluminium/carbon fiber ones.

Has anyone used wooden tripods? Can you please share your experiences here?

P.S : They will be used for outdoor landscapes and macro work. And I wont be using any huge 400mm lenses. the canon 55-250mm is the biggest lens i have now and wont have any huge ones in near future.

Thank you,
Cheers

Hi santhosh,

When I bought my little TeleVue telescope I bought a substantial wooden tripod to put it on. If you are considering one then pay special attention to the rigidity, or lack of it, where the top and bottom halves of the legs slide over each other and get locked in place. I'm assuming that the model you are considering only has two sections to each leg which either means the tripod will be bulky when collapsed or it will be rather short when extended so those are other considerations to think about.

Bob.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

Thanks Bob.
I will be getting to 3 section model to reduce the carrying size and get some more height without having to extend the centre column. These tripods come with a leveling base too which is useful.

Overall the tripod weighs 6 lbs. Berlebach have been making tripods for over a 100 years and are undoubtedly sturdy.

I just wanted to know why people are widely using the metal and alloy tripods nowadays. Is it only due to reduced weight or is there some obvious advantages that I am missing???

Well, an aluminum tripod will not start bending if it gets wet, for starters (think, wet grass).
I also presume aluminum is stronger than wood, but I'm not sure on that one. There's of course the weight issue with wood, and how compact you can make the whole setup.

You will attract the attention of photographers with a wooden tripod, in both good and bad ways. (some will laugh, some will think it's cool)

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I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".