Daily Archives: July 3, 2014

 

“There are two kinds of tripods; those that are easy to carry, and good ones…..”

                                                                                                                    Bill Fortney

 

This once “infamous” quote is getting revised, because Really Right Stuff has finally made a big, solid, sturdy tripod that is , well, easy to carry!  After years of admiring  Jim Haverstock’s, and Jack Graham’s and many others Really Right Stuff tripods, I made the leap and bought my own!!!  Why am I so excited?  Because this is the one thing other than a camera, lens, and memory card that you must have to make tack sharp images, and RRS has made it possible to have a serious tripod without breaking your back to get it to where you want to shoot.  I’ve owned Manfrotto, Gitzo, Induro, and many other brands, and I think all are good, all are better than not using a tripod, for sure, but honestly this is the finest tripod I’ve ever owned!  I had a Gitzo 1348 which served me very well for many years, but it has the old style twist locks that over time will give you great looking forearms if you really want a workout!

 

On the recent trip out to the Pacific NW, I got to play around with Jack’s RRS TVC-33 Series 3 and simply fell in love with it.  It works smoothly, is rock steady and shockingly light!  I had to have one, and now I do.

 

I topped it off with a new BH-55 LR ball head.

 

 

I have owned one of these bad boys for many years and it was still working perfectly but was getting pretty beat up, so I treated myself to another and will gets the original refurbished and I will mount it on another tripod, not sure why though, since I doubt much of anything else will get used now that I have the new TVC-33 Series 3.  I do have an Induro CT-214 when I want to go very light, but I see a smaller version of the TVC-33 in my future!

 

Why such an emphasis on tripods?  No matter how steady you think you are, or how high a shutter speed you can shoot, you will still introduce some movement into the image, and that costs you sharpness.  Then there are the times you want to shoot slow speeds to show motion rendition, and you certainly can’t do that hand held.  No, if you want critically sharp images you must use a solid tripod!

 

Really Right Stuff is a sponsor of my workshop company, and it is the tripod and head I bought with my own money!  That is the most ringing endorsement a person can make!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

Extra advice:  I bought extra feet (just in case – I have seen folks loose them), and used a little Loctite (the Blue kind) on the threads of the rubber feet to add a little additional protection from loosing any of them.  It’s not a bad idea, whatever tripod  you use, to occasionally check how tight the rubber feet are!  You can buy Loctite at your Auto supply store, Hardware store, or Walmart.

 

One last thing:  I’m adding a set of LegCoat pads to make throwing it over the shoulder easier.

http://www.lenscoat.com/legcoats-c-23_4.html