Ever since acquiring the Nikon 300mm f/2.8 back in the spring, I immediately wanted to get a “proper” tripod and head. The need for stable and reliable shooting was unobtainable in the small plastic Wally-World tripods; locking position accurately and eliminating camera shake for long exposures just didn’t work. So…after a lot of looking around for various tripod reviews, I decided on a fantastic combo, the Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod Legs and Manfrotto 410 Junior Geared Head. Both arrived in the mail today!
With camera and lens mounted, the whole set-up is over 13 pounds (enough weight to have great inertia for reducing camera shake), and the maximum height without extending the center column is right about eye level for me with camera mounted–a comfortably high 6’2″.
I may do a full review of this combo sometime, we’ll see. I’m just looking forward to never worrying about heavy camera shake again. At 450mm FoV, simply standing near a non-stabilized tripod (my old one) can induce severe motion jitter. No more. 🙂
IMPORTANT EDIT: I will not be doing a review of this tripod and geared head. There seem to be some quality control issues Manfrotto does not acknowledge.
Matthew Durr Photography 