Fool and his money soon parted?

New_Zealand

New_Zealand

Veteran
I just bought the Bogen / Manfrotto 3051 Tripod for my Hvx200. I felt the Manfrotto 3221 WM was too small for it. The 3221 worked fine with the Dvx100 but with Redrock gear that is going on the Hvx200 I felt I needed a bigger tripod.

First photo is the Manfrotto 3221 with Hvx200

1212943214.jpg



These two photos are of the Manfrotto 3051. I haven’t received the Tripod yet – got it off ebay. These are ebay photos.

Any feedback on this tripod? (I hope a fool and his money was soon parted isn’t me).

1212942926.jpg


1212942969.jpg
 
NOT a big fan of Bogen tripods.

Save your money and get a nice Sachtler, Cartoni, or, since you are "down under", a nice Miller.
 
Well, you've already bought the tripod, so there's not much to be said. But to be honest based on the picture I don't think the tripod you bought is an improvement over your old one. Ideally you would want a tripod that has spreader (either ground or mid-level), with locking knobs instead of tightening screws, and either a 75mm or 100mm bowl.

The 3051 might fill your need for now, but it's definitely not an upgrade-proof leg. The center column is a double edge sword: on the one hand it'll keep the minimum tripod length fairly high, but it'll also let you raise the camera without messing with the legs.
 
Don't beat urself over it cuz It'll do the job!
only bummer is that its not a fluid head like the focus but then u bought it on ebay and probably paid a fraction of the cost!:)
 
$485 is a ridiculous price for that tripod considering it has no professional feature to speak off.

I use a Varizoom T100A tripod which isn't bad for the money ($225). It's huge though so if you're looking for mobility it might not be a good option for you.
 
Problem with both those tripods are they are for studio s or flat floors and primarily for stills cameras.

Location shooting requires "legs" not tripods. These cover un even terrain much better because they do not have the brace structures in the centre that angle down to the feet.

Also - FIlm Camera Legs generally have two support rods in each leg to counter twist when panning and tilting.
 
Last edited:
If you spend thousands on a great Pana Camera, why dump it on a crappy set of sticks, Need convincing, Borrow / Hire a good set of legs and a fluid head, you'll never go down market again.
Lousy camera support will give you lousy images , it' a simple equation. we all started out there at some point in our lives.

Cheers
Tom K
 
I agree Tom 4, the value equation is way off.

Smaller, lighter cameras actually need better quality tripods that bigger heavier cameras because smaller cameras have relatively little weight and almost no inertia in the movement.

In U.S. dollars, HVX is a $5,200.00 camera. With prosumer cameras, I would allocate at least 40 to 50% of the price of the camera to quality support, about $2,500.00. That's what I spent on my Sachtler that my HVX sits on. If you can't afford quality support, IMHO, you cannot afford the camera, unless you only shoot interviews or handheld.

Same thing with audio. If you spend $20,000.00 on your camera and lighting package and $2,000.00 on your audio package, you obviously are clueless and couldn't afford the camera because you should have bought a much cheaper camera and lights and much better quality audio gear. You have to balance your own budgets and think ahead. I think the typical scenario is that many people just buy what they think is a cool camera, stretch and just barely make it budget-wise, then they discover that support for the camera, grip and lighting and audio all cost 4-5 times what the camera cost to do it right and then they have to cheap out and buy lousy gear to support and work with their nice camera. A lot of people buy HVXs and EX-1s, when their real budget is more along the lines of an HV-20 or XA-H1 with decent support gear.

My situation is to look at the killer deal on the HPX-500s right now. $8k for that body, what a deal. Add $8,000.00 minimum for a halfway decent lens, not even a great one, add $2,000.00 for a battery and charger system, add $5,000.00 to $8,000.00 for a tripod, another $1,000.00 for a hardshell shippable case. Hmm...my $8,000.00 camera just turned into a $24,000.00 to $27,000.00 package. I can't afford it. Make due with the HVX until the HPX-170 ships, that is my budget range with ever tightening clients.

That is one thing that most pros who do this for a few decades begin to to discover. There is no such thing as buying a camera, you buy a camera system consisting of a case, tripod, head, batteries and a monitor. There is no such thing as buying a "mic for your camera", you need to budget for a sound package. Most of us earlier in our careers made the mistakes of buying Bogens, buying cheap lights, buying cheapo cameras, then trying to achieve profesisonal results with the gear. Not impossible but a lot harder, especially when you are early in your career and don't really know what you are doing.

With pro cameras, you can go back down to 10 or 20%. My old BVWD-600 cost me about $60k new, but the Sachtler Video 20 I had back then was only about $7,000.00. Nothing more frustrating that having a camera that can make as nice pictures as the HVX can and not being able to make smooth and consistent camera moves. The ones that really kill me are the full RED packages I have seen on Bogen 501 and 503 heads. What are people thinking?

Best,

Dan
 
Hi Dan,
I agree 100%, I didn't have time to tap out such a detailed thread. I hope newbies take notice.:thumbsup:
If I were you I'd look get a set of legs for the head you already have.-
The Manfrotto 501/520 PKIT includes the 520MVB Black Video Pro Tripod, 520BALL Half Ball, 501 Pro Video Head, 165MV Spreader, and the bag PROBAG,1.
Cheers
Tom K
olinevideo.com.au
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top