Photography revisited…

One thing has struck me of late – brought home by being reduced to a quivering wreck when switching a pub barstool for one on which all four legs were approximately the same length – I’m getting frighteningly weak. An intention tremor that affects my photography was dealt with here.

That’s one reason I made the switch to a D-SLR – my manual outfit is heavy. It’d still be heavy if I was fit! That left me with another problem – my tripod is a killer too.

It’s the Olivon TR-158M (mine’s black – tip: for birding, a shiny tripod is a liability), with the TRH-11 head and, OK, it’s well-engineered, on a level akin to the Forth Bridge, seemingly, and provides a rock-solid platform for my telescope or camera, but at 3.25kg, it’s way too heavy. It’s fine if I’m working out of the back of the car, but if it has to be hauled any distance, along with the rest of my kit, it’s a liability.

So, I’ve sprung for a new, lighter, one, a Velbon Sherpa 600R. This thing is recommended by Bird Watching magazine, so it damned well better be good! Gets maximum points from Wild About Britain too…

True, I could have got something even lighter (the claimed weight is 2kg) – down to about 1.3kg – but you begin to lose strength and rigidity with the smaller-diameter and thinner-walled tubing, which means, in this price range, a slightly more flimsy tripod. Double or triple the £60 price tag, and you’re looking at thinner and lighter tubing that’s just as strong, but – and it’s a big but – you do need some mass in a tripod, to help damp out vibrations.

I have spare Opticron head, similar but a tad larger, which has a locking screw to hold the quick-release platform in place so that my scope or camera won’t accidentally fall off when I move it. It’s a small risk anyway, but I see no reason not to eliminate it entirely, since I’m able to at no cost, and a very small weight penalty of 100g.

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Update: I never did get that Tripod – Bristol Cameras screwed up my order. After I’d placed it they emailed me to say they had none, the distributor had none, and there was no prospect of any being available any time soon. I checked with the distributor, who didn’t have the courtesy to reply. I changed the order to a Slik Able 300 DX, which is heavier than the 600R, but only a tad. Better head too.

A very nice tripod with thumbscrews instead of the usual clip locks, which are just as fast when you get used to them, and don’t get loose with wear. As soon as my Slik was delivered, Bristol Cameras emailed me to say they had Velbon 600Rs available – would I like one? Needless to say, I was amazingly pissed off by this, and demanded an explanation of how they could go from no stock available in the foreseeable future to ample stock a mere 4 days later. I never did get an explanation, but I think I know the reason – they couldn’t run a piss-up in a brewery!

The Slik doesn’t have a locking q/r plate either (why isn’t that standard?), but as I said, I have a spare head. It must be said, though, that the Slik’s head, apart from that one shortcoming, is excellent. And the adjustments are smooth as silk, and lock up rock-solid, and for transport the tilt lever is removed and screwed into the handle of the pan lever – nice idea.

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I’m hoping to get back into birding, and photography too, of course, in the next week or two. I’ve been waiting until I feel better (this is why, if you’ve missed it), but that’s clearly not going to happen any time soon, if at all, so I may as well bite the bullet and get on with it. It may mean using my “Racing Zimmer” – another reason for lightning my kit – but it’s a small price to pay if I can be more active. The idea thrills me not at all, but as the alternative is not going anywhere other than the pub, I’ll just have to find a way to deal with it – watch this space…

Update:- See also this post for more on the subject.