Your Camera Equipment

488RC0.jpg
 
I have the 486RC2. It's a step up from the 484, but if you've got the 055 legs, you might do what the Dr Q said. The 488 supports more weight and has variable vertical locking.

Ice: I can't imagine why anyone would use a three-way head for a still camera.
 
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You'd be surprised how useful it is when you need to be 100% precise. Say you're shooting a panorama and you have the head leveled JUST so, you only have to unscrew the horizontal handle to turn it. Or various other situations.
 
The only downside I have with my ball head is that I need to use a hotshoe mounted spirit level to make sure everything is straight. What makes up for this is that if you're on really uneven ground you don't need to make sure the tripod is level, you can just compensate with the head. It's also handy when doing macro or telephoto work.
 
Well, the tripod and the head have spirit levels. Also, my future cam, the D700 will have advanced accelerometers to allow me to level it digitally.
 
Yeah, the D700's virtual horizon function would be great for me, I consider myself horizon challenged. The greater AF system would also blow my mind, and the ISO performance, and fact it's full frame and... DAMN YOU :(.
 
What cam do you have again? you don't have lines in the viewfinder? Or in liveview?
 
The problem is that depending on where you are and how the world looks from where you are, level isn't always the same as a level horizon in your photos, at least not in my experience. With the advent of liveview, I rarely see the need to any sort of leveling devise, as it's as easy to align the horizon looking at the screen.

Just my 0.2.
 
The lines don't particularly help for getting horizons straight, the horizon very rarely occurs where the lines are when I'm shooting. They are very useful in helping with composition though, if you're a rule of third kind of person. When I have the camera tripod mounted I have my spirit level which is far more reliable than anything else I can think of.
 
Maybe, but it's more likely that I am to blame, unlike precision optics I cannot be calibrated to make me more reliable. The particular problem I'm having with the lines not appearing where the horizon is will more likely be due to me trying out some more "crazy" compositions. The last thing that will get blamed in the Dr_Q photography equation is the camera. In my defence most of the photos I shoot are with a telephoto lens which if anything will emphasise my slight horizon issues :lol:.
 
Manfrotto sell a panoramic head for rotating the head around the focal plane; I like the ball head but would like a pano head too :) I have a 10mm lens tho so it's not 100% necessary.

For the price of the Manfrotto pano head, you could probably buy a Nodal Ninja and regular ballhead as well.
 
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