well proberbly if you saving all this money on not buying expensive tripods, etc you could maybe buy a lens that fast you could keep the shutter open for 7 seconds whilst balancing the camera on your nose and still get sharp shots!!

no but in all seriousness i see where you're coming from but i disagree with the bit where it says dont waste ur money on expensive optix when u can buy a tripod. id buy the expensive optix because the only time you shoot with a tripod is at night or special occasions and whats the point on spending somthing ur not gonna use often but if u buy a wicked lens ur gonna use it all the time and it might be fast enough to dodge the use of a tripod. well imo save your money and buy a cheapo tripod and spend ur money on a nice L lens.




no i ment tie it around your leg to stop it falling off the cliff
oh and maybe we could tie it around our legs for the hip-shot thing we were talking about

This post was edited by doyleo on Feb 13 2009 04:37pm

Money is no issue lmao I can buy any tripod.
Shouldn't cheap out on the best thing to keep your tripod sturdy.

+ I have all the lenses I've ever wanted...70-200L, 24mm wide, kit, 50mm prime, 70-300mm etc. etc.

yeah but if you keep buying things that you dont really need you'll end up with no money at all!

and id perfer to upgrade my camera body and/or lens over getting a tripod reinforced with carbon fibre

This post was edited by doyleo on Feb 13 2009 04:45pm

Nahh lol.

I'm actually going out to buy a Pro Consumer Epson photo printer in like 20 minutes

somthing i keep thinking to myself recently is why should i spend my money on stuff that people are making a huge profit on. why not instead should i not use my money to make more money?


my advice would to be save your money, and spend it on a pro printing service when you take a nice shot.

I own the BH-55 from Really Right Stuff (google), and I think they make a smaller version the BH-40 if memory serves which may be affordable. I opted for the 55 to carry a 2 foot lens. I also purchased a Gitzo which can carry 50 or 60lbs ... this was all important to me for wind, etc. I have not been disappointed once in my purchase of the RRS products or Gitzo. And yes Bogen/Manfrotto are also good products so you should do just fine with those.

Hmm I think Arca Swiss makes a ballhead that can be had for cheaper than RRS ... but whatever you get what you pay for and I would just research it well and think about your future plans. Sucks to buy things twice or "upgrade" - buy right the first time and save in the long run.

Why pay a "pro printing service" to print my photos when I can print better photos from my home

You pay a pro printer because you CAN'T do everything they can do.

They work from calibrated monitors, printers, etc. on better quality papers and can print up to 20x30 in most cases ... most people can't do this and to get this type of setup costs thousands. It's much cheaper to find a good printer and let them print than to try to master that. Cheaper too. I can get a 16x20 print, which is a standard size I offer people, for around $10 from MPIX while most printers that are higher end can do 11x17 ... more than that and you are getting into some real cost. Let the printers spend the $$$$$$$$$$$$$ on the printing gear, materials, blah blah you spend your own $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ on taking great pics that you can make money from, or get some pride from having. Unless you are rich or making ALL of your money in photography then most photographers will still opt to use pro-printers than try to print all their own stuff.

Not talking about 8x10 or whatever, talking the bigger prints that you can sell for more than $35.

I actually use my tripod more than I thought I would.

The only thing I don't like about it, is that it's time consuming to set it up. 9 different things I have to touch to get it fully sprout out (even more if I want to make it taller). Annoying for when you're in a hurry to get it set up, for that fantastic lightning shot. In all though, I don't understand whats so great about a ball head, I never even knew about them till a few years after getting my tripod; what's the benefit? I do plan to get a tripod later down the road, after my battery grip



Yeah, I knew it was a hell of a lot more expensive. Sure, the quality might be better, but I'd rather save a lot of money by just going to local printer stores here . I do have a lil printer to satisfy me for when I want to print a photo, and it does just fine for what I want.

Well what I like about a ballhead is that you can level the camera even though the legs might not be on level ground ... this fits my own style as I often find myself on uneven ground. You probably wouldn't need it in a studio for instance but it comes in handy in other places for sure. Also sometimes I am in a hurry and can't level it, so I drop the legs where they are and quickly adjust the ballhead to level and take the pic whereas if I didn't have the BH it would be crooked as hell and would be basically pointless in terms of selling it.