Lightweight tripod for ZD. quality of long lens?

[ivan muller]

I am looking for a lightweight tripod for my ZD. Has anyone have any experience with the Manfrotto 055 series and/or the neotec. I will use my 029Manfrottto head with it. Are these smaller ripods steady enough with long exposures? Apart from the weight advantage are the carbonfibre tripods sturdier than the metal equivalents?

How sharp are the mamiya 300mm lenses. I am talking about the (older) manual focus lenses.

thanks. Ivan

[Lester]

You don't want to save weight with the tri-pod, You want a very steady tripod. I am using a 645 AFD/P45 with a Manfrotto 3021 tripod and 410 head and still feel that it is not heavy enough for that system. I do have both the Manfrotto and
Gitzo carbonfibe tripods, I really think they are too light for sharp images. They are good for indoor with strobes.

The Mamiya 300mm f/2.8 lenses is very sharp, I have one and use it for my system. I do used it on a very heavy tripod, a Gitzo 555. with a number 5 head.  Keep checking on Ebay, you could get one at a very good price.

There are many reasons, why you do not get a sharp image, one of them is keeping the camera system steady enough. A good tripod is always a good way to start.

I am looking for a lightweight tripod for my ZD. Has anyone have any experience with the Manfrotto 055 series and/or the neotec. I will use my 029Manfrottto head with it. Are these smaller ripods steady enough with long exposures? Apart from the weight advantage are the carbonfibre tripods sturdier than the metal equivalents?

How sharp are the mamiya 300mm lenses. I am talking about the (older) manual focus lenses.

thanks. Ivan
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[Graeme Nattress]

The neotec is excellent. It's a great tripod that will get you shots that others cannot, because you can set it up so quickly you won't miss things that other tripods would have you still assembling them for! The tripod seems sturdy enough for the 500mm F4L, so I'd think it's sturdy enough for the ZD.

Using it with the 486RC2 ball head - not bad at all, but looking to get the 410 geared head also, but still waiting on the store to get me one in to play with.

Graeme

[ivan muller]

The neotec is excellent. It's a great tripod that will get you shots that others cannot, because you can set it up so quickly you won't miss things that other tripods would have you still assembling them for! The tripod seems sturdy enough for the 500mm F4L, so I'd think it's sturdy enough for the ZD.

Using it with the 486RC2 ball head - not bad at all, but looking to get the 410 geared head also, but still waiting on the store to get me one in to play with.

Graeme
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Thanks for the info!

It would seem the neotec is the one to go for! I have never gotten used to using ball heads. allways find it difficult to keep the hotizontal straight after adjusting the verical!
The longest lens I have at the moment is a 150mm for the ZD so it should be ok if it can handle a 500mm. What worries me though is wether the mechanism will be able to withstand a heavy fall or rough handling, not that I intend to do that but I wonder what will happen if a leg gets a slight knock.
Regards Ivan

[ivan muller]

You don't want to save weight with the tri-pod, You want a very steady tripod. I am using a 645 AFD/P45 with a Manfrotto 3021 tripod and 410 head and still feel that it is not heavy enough for that system.

Agreed! but I already have two heavy tripods! I am looking for something that is lighter and quicker to set-up and fold away,and still be sturdy! I also have a zone vi wooden tripod. Really great outdoors when the ground is uneven etc. but boy its heavy and big even with a lightweight 4x5 field camera! I usually carry  tripod and mounted camera over my shoulder but I am a bit reluctant to do that with a 12000usd camera!

Thanks. Ivan

[Graeme Nattress]

The neotec seems pretty sturdy so far - I think it will take a fall or two, but I've not tested that :-) As I said, I tried a few tripods in the store, and I had the neotec set up, taking photos in a fraction of the time it took to get the others standing.... It really is that quick to use.

Graeme

[Quentin]

How much do you like your ZD?  I have noticed price cuts here in England.  On launch, Robert White, for example, were advertising the ZD for sale for £7,000 plus VAT.  Now the price is £6,500 plus VAT, with a free 80mm lens thrown in (worth around £300) so that is an effective £800 price cut.

Quentin

[ivan muller]

I am from Johannesburg, RSA. Price wise- here at home- it was a no brainer compared to the other digital backs and even compared to eos 1. quality is superb, even on my wide angle lenses. I also have 50mm manual shift, which is great for interiors and architecture.( I personally dont like the wide angle look for interiors) Stopped down to f16 on A3+, it is far better than on 35mm. Grip on camera is nice and with a 80mm lens is great for handheld photography, although I prefer to use a tripod. Camera feels very solid and prism is metal. some plastic parts but on areas that probably dont need the extra protection of metal. Only real problem sofar is the screen which is very contrasty and blue. Definately room for improvement there. On jobs I would rather use a laptop to view the images critically and anyway my clients prefer the laptop to the screen. From a commercial point of view the price for the mamiya system made far more sense to me. I would rather spend the extra bucks that a phase one etc would cost on myself. And frankly, once printed in a magazine etc, who would notice the diffrence? - if there is such a  difference!
I was keen to get a 5d but it did not give me the wow factor over my 20d. The first A3+ prints from the zd really impressed me and from then on I was sold. Of course I also had to get a 4gig card because you only get 26 or so images on a 1gig card! It never ends!

If you have specific questions on the ZD I will test it and come back to you. A lot of the early criticism seemed to have come from people who did not even test the camera.

regards. Ivan

[mcfoto]

If you have specific questions on the ZD I will test it and come back to you. A lot of the early criticism seemed to have come from people who did not even test the camera.

regards. Ivan

Hi
Have you tried the RAW processer yet? Not the photoshop one. I have sent them ZD files with colour charts a few months ago and am waiting for new profiles. They just started supporting the ZD in May. I downloaded the trial and was really impressed with the file quality but I could not get the colour profile so I decided to leave that to them. We own one here in Sydney and I love how easy it is to use. I agree the screen could be better but if you get one of those Jobo handheld viewers that will make life easy. The software is RAW Developer 1.5.1.
Thanks Denis

[ivan muller]

Unfortunately no, so far I've only used CS2 to open raw files. I only received my ZD about 3weeks ago and havent explored other software yet.

Which jobo do you use?

Thanks Ivan

[mcfoto]

Unfortunately no, so far I've only used CS2 to open raw files. I only received my ZD about 3weeks ago and havent explored other software yet.

Which jobo do you use?

HI
The viewer is jobo Giga Vu Pro and they start at 40 gig at about 500.00 USD. I don't have one but the best way to shoot is jpeg/raw. That wat you can quickly view your shots on location it has about a 4 inch screen.
Thanks Denis