Advice on tripod / head for this rig

Hey guys,

I've looked through so many threads here and elsewhere about rigs that all the tripods and heads are starting to be a blur, so I thought I'd ask for your advice. Any thoughts at all would be hugely appreciated, thank you! I'm looking for suggestions on tripod & head to support 8kg / 17.6 lbs of gear.

I'll be using it for landscape and visual documentary style videos, so it'll be on a tripod all the time at present. The total weight adds up to about 7.2kg (16 lbs) so far, and it'll generally be just me carrying this stuff around, so the weight is important.

I still need to add the rods and such, but the battery for example I could velcro onto the tripod leg or such to keep the weight off the head.

Currently from still photography I've got a Manfrotto Bogen 055CXPRO3 Carbon Fiber Tripod (weighs 1.6kg / 3.5 lbs, supports 8kg / 17.6 lbs) and a Manfrotto 682B Self Standing Monopod (weighs 1.15kg / 2.5 lbs, supports 12kg / 26 lbs) plus a couple of photography ball heads (Sirui K30X Aluminum Ball Head - Weighs 0.5kg / 1.1 lbs and supports 30kg / 66 lbs and Manfrotto 468MGRC2 Ball Head - Weighs 0.6kg / 1.4 lbs and supports 10kg / 22 lbs)

Fantastic if I can get away with using my existing tripod or monopod, but with a good video head that'll put the tripod at least over the maximum weight.

I looked at the Manfrotto 504HD but general opinion seems to be it's a great price but doesn't counterbalance the 7.5kg it says it does, and it's not very smooth holding that weight.

This is the gear, again with the rods and such still to be added:

Blackmagic Camera - 1.7kg (3.7 lbs)
Canon Lenses - Upto 1.5kg (3.3 lbs)
Redrock Micro Follow Focus v2 - 0.5kg (1.1 lbs)
Sandisk 480gb SSD - 0.1kg (0.2 lbs)
Switronix PB70-BMCC PowerBase-70 Battery - 0.63kg (1.4 lbs)
Letus LTMB1 Matte Box - Roughly 1.8kg (4 lbs)
Plus an EVF in the near future - Roughly 0.5kg (1 lbs)
In the future up to 0.5kg (1.1 lbs) for sound recording gear

The MeFoto GlobeTrotter tripod looks appealing, for it's 1.7kg (3.7 lbs) weight and 12kg (26.4 lbs) support, plus it folds down very small and the price for the carbon fiber unit is good - http://www.mefoto.com/products/globetrotter.aspx#Specifications

Thanks again for any thoughts!

Sachtler, Miller, Vinten, Manfotto video. I don't think photography tripods will do the job.
I have a Vinten Vision 3 which takes up to 10Kgs and has very beautiful balance and fluid head motion.
It's a bit heavy but bulletproof and beautifully built. I've had it 5 years and it's as good as new.

Oconnor.

My BMCCEF weighs in over 12 pounds fully dressed.
I topped a set of Miller Solo DV aluminum sticks with a Sachtler FSB-6 and couldn't be happier.

Thanks for the replies so far Oconnor, ah I'd love that, but sorry I should have said in the first post that my budget is pretty limited. At first I was hoping for about US$1000 but that's looking like it'd cause problems now, and about US$1800 is where the reliable stuff starts.

The vision 3 seems great, I see someone was selling one with a tripod recently on our local auction site here in New Zealand for US$800... gutted I missed that now!

But thanks for the suggestions so far, I've been looking them up and comparing specs The Miller gear seems like it's going to be the best quality for the best price so far.

[CaptainHook]

I have a miller compass 20 head (i chose 2 stage alloy tripod) for my BMCC rig and it seems to work well.

If you're around auckland city sometime let me know and we could meet up and i'll show you the rig to see if it helps make your decision.

Thanks very much for the offer Sadly I'm down in Christchurch but never the less it's great to see another Kiwi on the board here Normally LostBoy's try to stay away from Captain Hook (just noticed our user names) but I would have loved to have seen your rig there.

I just checked out the miller compass 20 online and it looks fantastic. Out of my price range but I just bought a little Lotto ticket for the first time in ages, because hey, who knows.

The more I look into the miller gear though, the more I like it.

Love the look of the images on your site by the way!

[CaptainHook]

Ah, oh well. I was just in queenstown all last week (still pretty far away but closer than auckland!). The miller stuff is great, for some reason i seem to have a lot of australian made products.

I would recommend spending as much as you can on a good tripod/head, it should out last many cameras and be with you a long time. If that means waiting and holding out as long as possible, i would. I hired my particular tripod model from a place in auckland when i needed it until i had the funds to purchase it. I also got to figure out if it was right for my rig and how i like to work.

And thanks, my personal site is pretty outdated now and more recent stuff tends to go here:

http://acoupleofnightowls.com/blog/
https://vimeo.com/acoupleofnightowls/videos

Thanks! I'll have a really good think and save up some more. Except if a fantastic deal happens to come up 2nd hand that will still do the job well, then I'd probably go for that knowing I could resell it for most of that value when I can afford the gear I really want.

Thanks again for the advice, this thread has already narrowed down my choices greatly

Take a look at the Sirui VH-20 head ($650) with VT-2003 (alum, $250) or VT-2203 (carbon fiber, $400) legs. They are very high quality for price and support up to 33 lbs.

Would something like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/AT7401-75mm-3-B ... 1e6988a17e

match something like:

http://broadcastsupport.eu/products/62- ... c-dv875ah/

I had the same problem migrating from stills. Wanted an Oconnor but couldn't afford it so got a Manfrotto 504 and then couldn't pan. So there I was back at the beginning.

As I turned the problem over and over again I got some great advice. Weigh your gear and once you finalize what it's likely to weigh (always a moving target) center that number on the sweet spot of the head/sticks in question. That way you can go over on the occasion when you need to.

With a rigged camera, a mattebox, a couple of filters, follow focus, EVF and/or monitor, battery with plate, mic, sometimes recorder, a sound device that I have yet to settle on. I end up between 17-25 lbs.

At the recommendation of several folks around here and another board I ended up with a used Vinten 100 with the matched carbon sticks with mid-level spreader. I bought a bag off ebay. It's a tiny bit heavier then some choices and though it still cost more than I wanted to spend it was far less than the Oconnor. The bottom line is I love it and never lose a shot due to the tripod now. It pans and tilts like glass.

A friend has taken a completely different route. He's all based on low weight never exceeding 15 lbs. He also would not settle on anything other than Oconnor. So he got tiny Leica primes along with Nikon and Tokina zooms, very light 4X4 mattebox, Manfotto 536 sticks with an Oconnor 515 head. He uses a small MYT slider with all that. With this setup he is almost always just under max weight and has to take gear off that I find I would not want to be without. But I've got to say that I love the shots his setup makes which really is the final test.

Hope this helps and good luck. I'll be curious where you land.

Thanks very much for your replies! I've been considering all the various models lately and came across a good deal on a used Miller Tripod 422 which weighs 2.4kg (5.3 lbs) and supports 25kg (55 lbs) plus a used Miller DS-20 Head which weighs 1.75kg (3.9 lbs) and supports 10kg (22 lbs). The Miller compass 20 head seems better, but being able to resell the DS-20 if needed lets me try this first.

The other tripods suggested lately also looked very good, and seemed to weigh / retract down / support a similar amount.

The Sirui VH-20 also looked very appealing, but in the end I went with the Miller because it was a combination package and the weight limit is still a bit higher than I calculate I need now, while the weight of the actual head is a good chunk lighter. But if I wasn't carrying it around a lot, I would have gone with the VH-20. Not that it's heavy, but every bit helps.

Thanks again for everyones help! And hopefully other people are able to find this thread useful too I look forward to posting how it all goes at some stage.

Sounds like you're on track.

After reading the negative comments in this thread regarding the Manfrotto 504 head, I’m getting worried about tomorrow’s rental. Will post update soon.