Being bored at work today I found myself looking through a Bogen/Manfrotto product guide. Coming accross the video tripods, it struck me that the #3190 pro video tripod coupled with, say, the Gitzo 1570 head, might be just the thing to support my 8x10. It certainly looks sturdy enough (max load of 44 lbs), and the ball leveller would be quite nice. Has anybody used this tripod, or a tripod similar to it, for LF photography? Also, does anybody know if the legs actually lock at different angles, or is it like the Zone VI and need a spreader on smooth surfaces? Many thanks in advance.

-- Dave Munson (orthoptera@juno.com), August 05, 2000

Answers

I agree emphatically with your assessment!

Before I lucked int an older Ries at a killer price that had been my goal

- to get a second hand set of Mitchell or O'Connor or Birns & Sawyer sticks and affix a Ries single tilt head to the ball - use the ball for pan and horizontal level and the Ries for tilt.

With such a large yoke and the ball nestled down at the intersection of the legs - seems to me you couldn't beat it. I don't know the Bogen model numbers that well but they have three video sticks with locking leg angles and one with a chain (ala' the Zone VI).

I have used the largest pair (albeit quite awhile ago) under a Sony BVW 30 and it worked fine - the Sony with an Anton Bauer brick goes around 30 lbs.

-- Sean yates (yatescats@yahoo.com), August 05, 2000.

I am using a Bogen 3039 Super Pro pan head mounted on an old pair of L.A.-made Ries sticks. The head has the octagonal quick mount plate. The combo works very well. The very first time I held my 8X10 field camera up and attempted to screw the stud on my Graf Studioball into the base plate, I realized that the quick mount system is the way to go. The Bogen 3039 at about 4 lbs. is rated up to 8X10 and is quite stout.

A 3039 head on top of a large pair of Bogen legs would be a solid and not terriblely expensive support system.

-- Steve Barth (wsbarth@networld.com), August 05, 2000.

I was checking this out at B&H a few weeks ago. There seem to be a number of video legs that would do a good job for 8x10", but cine/video heads definitely seem better suited toward film and video than to a still camera. With a moving image, I think one just doesn't need to worry about vibration as much as with a still image.

-- David Goldfarb (dgoldfarb@barnard.edu), August 06, 2000.