Time to buy a new Tripod. Sachtler Ace? Manfrotto 502/504HD Head?

deusex said:
I want to report about the Sachtler Ace, I received it today.

From the short test I was able to make, everything seems fine, except one actually pretty big problem. The fluid head always gives a slight kickback at the end of the pan movement.
Click to expand...

Probably not the fluid head, which is pretty solid. Almost certainly the sticks. I played with an Ace at B&H last April when I was in NYC for something else, and the sticks certainly did wind up with just about any level of pan drag. But for the price, they give pretty remarkable performance. If you need more rigidity, you're going to have to pay more for it I'm afraid.
 
I'm not trying to be an apologist for Sachtler or a product that is genuinely defective -- but -- it's easy to concoct a test that shows backlash, or small shifts in position when you engage and release the pan and tilt locks, and yet harder to actually see such effects when you're using the product in anger on a real life shoot. You generally keep your hand on the pan bar while shooting and can manually damp out a lot of small motion errors while easing in and out of the camera move, plus, many real life subjects (architecture notably excepted) do move at least a little and this tends to mask extraneous shifts added by the camera support. In the end, you do get what you pay for (and are able and willing to carry, since sturdy tripods are big and heavy), but the cheaper and lighter heads that are coming out now are still pretty remarkable for the price, overall, and way better than trying to live without any kind of fluid head at all.

There are some subjects where extreme precision is required in composing elements of the picture and even the slightest image shift is completely unacceptable, but those are relatively rare in the kinds of shooting where you'd normally find these lightweight tripods used anyway. It is my personal style to keep the drag settings as low as I can while still damping out vibration and shakiness (typically, 2 on the scale of 7 on my Sachtler DV-6SB), which gives me more of a feeling of controlling the camera motion myself, and helps avoid the "windup" issue (which is not a big problem with that somewhat beefier tripod anyway).

I feel for you ... selecting equipment is always a balancing act between performance, price and practicality.

- Greg
 
Is anyone using the ACE L yet? I still can find them to buy? I'm assuming they will be a bit better than the ACE M and I sold my bigger Sachtler a month ago and hope replace it ASAP. Do I wait for the ACE L? I like the idea of Carbon weighing less and the ACE L capacity is higher.
 
Did you find a tripod to replace your DV6? Did you consider the ACE L and are you selling your DV6?
 
is getting a carbon fiber tripod--wedding videos--a good choice over aluminum in your guy's opinion?
 
Been looking all week for a good deal on a sachtler tripod - bought one of these guys last night - 2 more left.
899 for the head and sticks and spreader.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...E:L:OC:US:3160
A great deal from my calculations. the head itself is 1250 and sticks 400 at B&H
anyway - thought someone might be able to use
smile.png


http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...luid_Head.html

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...75_Tripod.html
 
That's the tripod I've got, and I couldn't be happier with it.


kevin baggott said:
Been looking all week for a good deal on a sachtler tripod - bought one of these guys last night - 2 more left.
899 for the head and sticks and spreader.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...E:L:OC:US:3160
A great deal from my calculations. the head itself is 1250 and sticks 400 at B&H
anyway - thought someone might be able to use
smile.png


http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...luid_Head.html

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...75_Tripod.html
Click to expand...
 
kevin baggott said:
Been looking all week for a good deal on a sachtler tripod - bought one of these guys last night - 2 more left.
899 for the head and sticks and spreader.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...E:L:OC:US:3160
A great deal from my calculations. the head itself is 1250 and sticks 400 at B&H
anyway - thought someone might be able to use
smile.png


http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...luid_Head.html

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...75_Tripod.html
Click to expand...

Man, those went fast. Great deal you got there. I have the same basic rig and paid about twice as much for it. I would have picked up another in an instant at that price.

- Greg
 
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