What tripod for scarlet dragon?

[Brian Merlen]

it all comes down to how heavy your glass is i think for the most part and how crazy you kit things. I've gotten by with primes on the manfrotto, but to get on retro zooms i gotta step up to something higher end with a heavy head..

 

[Rome Will]

Just my two cents,

But I had the 509 + 536 combo that a lot of people on here are talking about. I ended up wanting/needing something a little more for the tripod head and looked into the next model up for the 509 (I forget the number, but I think it's discontinued anyway...I can't find it on the Manfrotto website). After careful consideration, and reading lot's of reviews, I scored a Oconnor at a great price. I know it's out of the range you listed, but they have a ton of older 1030's on eBay around the price range you mentioned. I'm willing to bet that with the older Oconnor head, and some of those new 536 CF legs (which I still use given their huge range- these things get >7 feet tall when stretched out with the camera and tripod head on it), you'll be good to go...and still maintain a professional stance when going out on shoots. Hope this helps!

 

[Rupert Hopkins]

If it was me then every time I would go for a second hand older Sachtler or Ronford setup - you get a far better quality of construction and operation for less money. You can pick up Sachtler Video 18, 20 and even 25 heads for around £1,200-£1,500 and Ronford 2004 for under £2,00 and you're into an entirely different league of head than the likes of Manfrotto and the lower echelon Miller and Sachtler models.
Steve

I would love a Ronford tripod but I find there too expensive even second hand, as for sachtler my experience has been pretty unlucky, (I know they are ment to be good) my friend used a Sachtler for a few months and it just started breaking the counter balance stoped working completly and the pan and tilt became much less smooth in the end he had to send it back it was however one of the lower budget end tripods but still not great. I also used one of the better Sachtlers from a kit house a while ago and the pan was all funny, like there was stuff blocking the components inside or something and had to take it back. They apologised and said it sometimes happened before with that tripod and assured me they would send it back. I was probably just unlucky but I cant bring myself to buy one lol.

I have pretty much exclusively stuck to Romford baker and O'connor since, with the exception of using the miller compass a couple of times. I'm based in the uk and I haven't been able to find anything decent second hand on ebay over the last few months.

I know Miller isn't really competing with the big boys hehe but my experience has been good with them. I will however have a look for a little while longer for second hand alternatives.

Also I will be using Rokinon and Schneider Xenon with the occasional cook zoom. So most of the time fairly normal weight lenses. I might be using a slider on the tripod occasionally.

I love the Miller solo legs but I think for a full red setup I'm probably going to go with normal legs, dare I say it mostly because i think the miller solo look a bit unprofessional and a little too photography like.