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Originally Posted by Andy
Hi Brian, your using a focal length of 600mm before any camera crop factor... don't skimp on support. Manfrotto 055 is the bare minimum for a legset, even more so if you are using a big f2.8 300mm lens. If it is a f2.8, then I'd suggest a fluid type head along the lines of the Manfrotto 501 pro.
The quality of modern Fluid and gimbal type heads have made ball heads almost redundant today for the bird/wildlife photographer with large lenses.
cheers,
Andy
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I wouldn't agree. I have tried several large tripods incluing the Benbo Mk1, an old monster Kodak tripod that weighed 15 lbs, the manfrotto 501 and the Manfrotto 075B which is about the sturdiest non Studio tripod they do (12lb weight with hydrostatic ball head and rated at over 27 llb support weight and with well centre braced legs as well). Non were perfect with a 300mm f2.8 with 2x conv. then I bought the 055B with the large magnesium hydrostatic ball head (rated at 35lb) which with the adjustable frcition lock is superb for 3D panning and things got a lot better, I can now get shots that out-resolve the CCD at 1/5th sec (better than 54llpm).
I couldn't understand why at first so I carried out some measurements using a B&K miniature accelerometer and an Analogic FFT analyser. the answer is in the higher intrinsic damping of the spirally wound CF tripod legs, the unique top leg locating expansion clamps which impart further damping and the associated lower leg locking clamps. For the same shock input derived from a solenoid driven hammer the vibration with the 055 died away in less tha 0.5 sec with all the metal tripods the decay time was over 2 seconds, also Manfrotto have made the best use of the unique properties of composite media by moving away from tubular legs to a pentagonal section which places a much larger proportion of the applied stess in tension which of course is where composites really score.