Thread: Tripods, who’s using what, and what to avoid ?

After tutu'ing around with various tripods many of which were camera focused, here are my findings:
Light weight tripods are ok for a camera, but lack stability when throwing a rifle on top.
The more sections a tripod has, the less stability it has. Purely due to increasingly thinner legs in the lower sections.
Carbon tripods are the easiest way to get additional rigidity for a given weight.
Tripods with thicker legs are generally speaking able to hold more weight, and are more rigid.
Camera ball heads are good, but not ideally suited to shooting. - normally sit well above the tripod base, reducing rifle stability. With only a few exceptions, the ball adjustment knob is small, and almost all have a tiny screw for adjusting panning. This panning plate is a weak point, and limits the rigidity of the ball head when mounting a lot of weight on it.
Inverted ball heads are way better, but not overly common.
75mm / 100mm bowl type leveling heads are incredibly stable, but lack the vertical adjustment range of a ball head.
Spiked feet are fantastic for field use.
Tripods that do not have leg stops make noise when the legs bang against each other.
The more sections your tripod has, the shorter it stores away, and the longer it takes to set up.

What have I ended up with?
I have a 2 section carbon tripod. 40mm and 36mm tubes. 75mm bowl leveling head that accepts Arca and Picatinny rails. Spiked feet. Rubber tubing over the bottom of the legs to stop them banging together.
Due to the size, it's never going near the bush, but is perfect for taking out in the fields to shoot rabbits.

My tripod with a Leofoto ball head - big adjustment knob (fantastic), but still had the panning screw and plate.


The leveling head I finally settled with. Noticeably more stable than any of the ball heads I tried.




If I wasn't going down the DIY path, I'd have been looking at the 2 Vets, and Leofoto 2 section tripods