Heavy Duty Tripod

In my quest for a heavy duty tripod I found my self in a surveyor's supply store. For $199 a got the mother of all tripods. It is a surveyor's tripod designed to hold heavy suryeyer's tools. It is not light or sexy looking but it seems as stable as you can get along with heavy duty ground spikes. They also had an adaptor for a camera head. Just a thought if someone is looking for a stable base at a low cost. I will be making a few modifications and post pictures on the site. 50 lb load capacity.

Nice! You might also want to put some camo on it so someone doesn't spot you from a mile away. It's the worst when it scares away whatever creature you're taking pictures of. Good find!

I have one of these big yellow monsters too, Mike. Got it at Loew's. A mixed blessing, as far as I'm concerned. Right on re: the need for camo. I think it's in the Book of Genesis that yellow is commanded for surveying equipment, but that's really gotta get covered up. I'd hesitate to take it on African safari for fear it would be spotted and raped by a horny girraff! It is reasonably light, but even collapsed it's pretty massive, and until it's set up and is supporting weight it's really loose and wobbly and AWFULLY CLANKY AND NOISY because almost every joint and fitting seem engineered to be of loose fit...probably to prevent it from getting jammed and locked up with gravel or mud while in use by the surveyor.. I've tried to figure out some way of muting its $%/<@// tendency toward egregious, objectionable LOUD NOISE generation, but so far I've not succeeded. I do wear ear plugs, though, so as not to be distracted from stalking the beasts I hope to photograph,,,and they've suddenly gotten real hard to find,,,of late....

If you figure out some workarounds of these problems, please let me know, because for now, it's my favorite camera support for recording the ne'er-t'-be forgotten events at the family reunion. That tripod gets EVERYBODY'S attention.. and they are all laughing!

Dave in South Dakota


HOPE TO PHOTOGRAPH...ANDTHEY HAVE, FOR SOME REASON, BECOME EXTREMELY SCARSE OF LATE....

I looked a the Lowes unit and it was not heavy enough. I am in the process of spraying camo on my unit. I am also going to install some bumpers to reduce noise. The other thing I will do is add chains to control how far it opens. I will post pictures when I finish.

Mike

I have a surveyor's tripod that I use in my engineering business. Never considered using it for a camera tripod. The surveying instrument attaches differently than a photographic tripod head does. It has a completely different method of leveling the instrument and it allows for the instrument to be positioned exactly over a specific point on the ground by using a plumb bob or visual sight. It is designed to hold its position after being set up. Not sure how shake free it is. I wasn't aware they made adapters for mounting a camera. Without that adapter, you'd have to make something up. Hope you find it satisfactory.

I have the Feisol 3371 CT, carbon fiber and one of the larger models to use with my D300 and Nikon 500mm and it was just $319.00. It might be a better alternative. I have a review on it on my blog. www.naturesportal.blogspot.com