Lucas Adamson
Well-known member
Just for the record, if it's a Vinten "Pro" series, it's rebadged generic Chinese crap. Vision is the only real quality stuff. The Blue seems perfect for a rigged up DSLR up to an Arri Alexa.
All tripods the same?
- Thread starter Foster Kane
- Start date
Deniz Coker
Active member
I haven't tried it myself, but Sachtler used to make a big song and dance about how their fluid wasn't affected by extreme cold. I'm sure they still do, I just haven't paid attention! The LF drag on Vintens is allegedly good down to -40 degrees Celcius.
To be brutal, Manfrotto just isn't in the same league as Sachtler or Vinten in many ways, and the quality of the fluid in the head is just one way. I don't pretend to understand it, but there's more to a fluid head than just throwing some grease in there.
From my perspective, at -40 degrees I don't think even my arms would work.
For what it's worth, I had a sachtler dv4 freeze up while doing some wides up in the mountains. Don't remember the temperature off the top of my head, perhaps around 20 degrees? Panning got a little jittery (which I luckily didn't need but inadvertently discovered anyway) and it was a pretty beat up rental if that counts towards anything. I've also used DV4's millions of times and never had a problem, I didn't pan much on my other warm indoor shots so perhaps it was just beat up.
It would be nice if a user can actually testitfy that Sachtler's tripod that promises temperature operation ranges from -40 to 150 degree is actually true then I might reconsider buying one in the future. I live in the Midwest and it does get pretty cold....not below 40 but -10 to 100 is enough for me.