Yeah that's what I have heard too. Plus that a good ball head would further eliminate or reduce shaking when you take a long exposure landscape picture at least according to a guide about tripods and ball heads that I have read lol.




I know what you mean and that's also the reason why I haven't really bothered to get a tripod but sometimes it is necessary to have one like those awesome lightning shots of yours course I doubt that I could hold a camera absolutely still for several seconds lol.
About ball heads I haven't heard of them either until like a month ago when I was browsing thephotoforum and saw some posts about them and then I read this very informative guide someone posted in there: http://www.bythom.com/support.htm
You should take your time to read this article because it tells you whole a lot about why you should get a decent tripod and why you need a ball head.

So have you called Don's and asked if they have a grip for your XTI? If not you may want to go to Best Buy and check out that third party grip they are selling. It's cheaper and probably just as good.

This post was edited by Futurama on Feb 14 2009 04:41am

Yeah I have heard that often it is whole a lot cheaper and easier to get it printed at a local printer store if you need larger prints of your photos but I have kinda noticed that some of the photos I have taken so far aren't really sharp and nice if I view them in huge original sizes which is 3888x2592 especially those handheld night shots. So if I want to get a large print of my photos do I have to like sharpen them first or something?

I just invested into a gitzo tripod myself (700$ more or less) and upgraded my heavy manfrotto.

The tripod is the most important accessory a photographer can have.
Helps you learn how to compose, gets you sharper images and makes you think more.

Invest in something decent or you will be upgrading or not using it cause it sucks.
The manfrotto 190mf4 or 3 is a good tripod at a fair price.

For best price performance i would look at Feisol, they make quality stuff for pretty cheap.


Edit:

Oh and I agree with Solarves about the printing.
I always bring my pics to a pro studio to get printed, they have the best printers, the best paper and the files come out GREAT.
And they are even very cheap, cause since the do the job for a living they buy big lots of everything and save.
IMO it's so not worth it to print your own...

This post was edited by Astragony on Feb 14 2009 05:15am

Ah, I figured it was something to that extent. I'll most likely be using it for un-even ground, you find it a lot.



I have phoned the local store here and they can order one in for me, the canon one. I'm not sure about the other brand, though.

This post was edited by chantal7 on Feb 14 2009 06:31am

Well the thing is I have never seen any of the Feisol products at my local camera store or any of the places I usually look for camera equipment but thanks anyway .
I guess I will get that Manfrotto tripod with a decent ball head course it seems to be one of the better tripods for a relatively reasonable price and because of the positive comment from you .



Those cheap tripods are probably only good for indoor/studio. I guess I will have to look at those tripods in the real life to see how hard or easy it is to adjust them when putting them on uneven ground but I wouldn't be surprised that those better tripods were made for easy and quick adjustments so you don't have to stand there for hours trying to make it stable lol.

Maybe you should ask them if they could order one of those knock-offs for you too because they are probably just as good and usually cost a lot less too.

This post was edited by Futurama on Feb 14 2009 03:11pm

I read this before I purchased and ended up going with the Gitzo and RRS BH ... you should check it out because it gets you to think future which may or may not be important to you.

http://www.bythom.com/support.htm

hah i should be getting a new tripod allso, this crap of mine can hardly carry my camera with lens, but since i dont use tripod much i dont think ill be buying one near future, enyways the crap tripod makes good stand for flash.

Only invest for a good tripod if you need a good tripod, cheaper tripods will work well allso and should be able to carry your camera easilly(if you just pick the right one). But if you carry the tripod much you will want it to be light weight, but if you take it outside once a month id say paying 4 times the price of cheap tripod is just a waste of your money. Ballhead comes handy when you shooting something like birds with heavy telezoom for a long time and stuff where you need to move your camera much and fast on the tripod. That normal tripod mount(or what ever its called) isnt hard to use and it allso has some benefits over ballhead, for example on shooting panoramas.

what set of legs do you have?

hmm I think you are right about not needing a good and expensive ball head I mean I doubt that I will go out into the wild to take some awesome pictures in the near future. I will mainly use the tripod for landscape and indoor photography but I still want to get a lightweight though and I have heard that those light weight tripods with aluminum legs are easy to get bent so that's why I want one with composite legs.

It seems that my local camera store is having a huge sale on tripods so I'll probably be getting that Manfrotto tripod tomorrow.

http://www.donsphoto.com/spec_sheet.html?catalog[name]=Manfrotto-190MF3-mag-fiber-tripod-3-SCT-Tripods&catalog[product_guids][0]=6727eb95-46a2-4abc-a86e-6bd7c122cc09