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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Tripod+head

C

Christian Favale

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I’m just i little bit confused about head and tripod choice for my red. Stuff like O’connor 2575 or Sachtler is just too expensive, and may be not needed. I think in the worst of the situation, i’m going to have my red loaded with hard disk, battery, matte anche 85mm ZF. Is there any quality head+tripod solution with affordable costs? Lets say max 5k?
 
I've actually had very good luck with a Manfrotto 526 head and aluminum sticks. About $1600 from Amazon.

Holds up to 35 pounds and does a pretty smooth pan/tilt.

Perfect if you want to keep some dough for a RedRock Matte Box, Formatt Filters and some nice lights, all from what you'll save!

416B1C57R2L._SS500_.jpg
 
I'm planning on using my Cartoni Focus, but I'm using CF cards only and I'm planning to use a battery belt clip to relocate the battery to a tripod leg. I'll only have the Cam, 7" Monitor, rod system, lens, and a (RedRock) mattebox on the head itself. The head is good for 22 lbs, I'll be under 16.

Bob
 
Do you know sites where i can find used tripods, legs and pro cinema stuff in general?
 
Where about in the world are you Christian?, im guessing the States, i dont know about there, but there are a few places here in the UK that have used stock i could point you in the direction of

NOTE** last time i checked they had some stuff, havent checked recently though.

Andrew.
 
Besides the fact that it won't be as smooth as a more expensive head, is there any other reason not to go with the Manfrotto 526? It's rated up to 35 pounds, but will it get damaged by regularly supporting a 35 pound load?
 
Christian Favale said:
I’m just i little bit confused about head and tripod choice for my red. Stuff like O’connor 2575 or Sachtler is just too expensive, and may be not needed. I think in the worst of the situation, i’m going to have my red loaded with hard disk, battery, matte anche 85mm ZF. Is there any quality head+tripod solution with affordable costs? Lets say max 5k?
Click to expand...

If you can spend about 5K on a tripod system, I suggest a Miller Arrow 55 head with legs. Have a look at this thread, there's a group buy that's being organized. There's a choice of three systems that should fall into your budget.

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=18746
 
Don Julio said:
Besides the fact that it won't be as smooth as a more expensive head, is there any other reason not to go with the Manfrotto 526? It's rated up to 35 pounds, but will it get damaged by regularly supporting a 35 pound load?
Click to expand...

That reason alone is a good enough reason. If you are spending $20k+ on a RED, don't you think you deserve having a head that is fully smooth? Let alone that it's unprofessional to have a head that jerks start/stop.

Let's put this into perspective as far as weight goes. I ran a RED last week with super speeds, RRM mattebox, Arri FF4, RED body, top handle, 19mm rods, top rods, drive cradle, RED drive, and battery on a Sachtler Video 18. Mine is an old one so it's rated to 40lbs. Let's just say that it held it fine and was smooth, but when you started doing tilts that were more dramatic that the counterbalance would not fully hold the camera. Yeah, you can get the camera lighter, but not by a ton.

Matthew
 
macville said:
That reason alone is a good enough reason. If you are spending $20k+ on a RED, don't you think you deserve having a head that is fully smooth? Let alone that it's unprofessional to have a head that jerks start/stop.

Matthew
Click to expand...

What I'm trying to figure out is, what are people's difinition of "fully smooth"? My strategy is to try and own a minimum package that I can actually use anytime I want, and then rent professional gear when I want to do a higher end production.

For example, I can't afford to buy nice PL mount lenses, so I bought a couple of good Nikons that are good enough for my purposes. If I have a really serious production, I'll rent some Master Primes.

So I'm asking someone who's actually used it, is the Manfrotto 526 comparable in quality to a nice Nikon lens? (I know it sounds like a stupid question, but I think you guys get what I'm asking).
 
We're doing a Miller group buy (if enough people remain interested) in the accessories forum. I don't know what the prices will be like just yet, but you can probably get an Arrow55, possibly with entry-level sticks, for around $4k. Hopefully less if enough people are interested.

I've used the Bogen head (on demo at a camera shop) and it was actually pretty smooth. No jerky movements at all from what I could tell. It didn't have a good mid-range tension setting though, it seemed to pan either too light or too heavy, but the floor model had a lighter camera on it than the RedOne so maybe it would behave differently with the RedOne weight. The Bogen seemed to also suffer from a really lousy counter-balance, in that its tension controls didn't seem to affect the tilt tension in any significant way. I will say though, by using that head I realized that counter-balance isn't quite as important as I'd originally thought. The torque from the pan arm is enough to manhandle the load pretty easily, and then you can lock down the gear at tilt... not perfect, but doable.

Ultimately, I think you just have to get what you can manage to afford and try to limp along with whatever features are missing. I haven't had much luck finding (modern) cheap used heads, because of all the demand out there, everyone is driving prices up in the used market. That's why I'm looking into getting a Miller in the group buy. The Miller head handles a heavier load than the Bogen, and will be easier to sell down the line. Most importantly, I'd feel safer putting the camera on the Miller instead of the Bogen. It would totally suck to save $2k on a tripod, only to watch your $30k gear let lose and hit the ground.

I was also considering getting an old O'Connor 50D. I couldn't figure whether the limited +/-45 degree tilt was worth the savings. As a stop-gap to getting a nicer modern head, I think the O'Connor is probably a good option. I suppose the Bogen might be a stop gap option, but the O'Connor is going to perform better within its allowed range of motion.
 
Maybe someone can get an Oconnor 1030 or Cartoni Delta group buy because both of these heads have true continuous counter-balance; unlike the other brands. no manhandling necessary, you can pan and tilt with one finger (just in case you get an ac with only one finger). But they're both 1k more then your arrow group buy.
 
Don Julio said:
What I'm trying to figure out is, what are people's difinition of "fully smooth"? My strategy is to try and own a minimum package that I can actually use anytime I want, and then rent professional gear when I want to do a higher end production.
Click to expand...

Beware your RED One is quite heavy, so counterbalance is very important, it's not only a matter of "full smoothness". Counterbalance means you do not have to use all your muscles to keep your camera from falling when tilting.
It's also very scary to feel that if your camera is not perfectly balanced in equilibrium it can just fall down if tilt lock gets loose.
 
At first step vs countinuous drag counterbalance didn't mean much until I went to NAB and tried them all out. After watching every rep that demoed a step system fuss around and not really get it exactly right, continuous drag went to the top of my list of requirements. (I'm sure there are users who have no problems.)
 
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