Need a tripod recommendation. Does it exist??

[Mark Suszko]

Do not raise or lower these sticks with a heavy camera still on top, and do not try to pick up the entire tripod and camera and walk with it a short distance. That was the scenario under which the accident occurred. Keep one hand on the camera’s handle, and your free hand and fingers up by the pan head and not in between the legs. My co-worker lost a fingertip which got crushed off or guillotined or scissored-off by collapsing or folding leg action, when he broke this rule.

As far as a bottom spreader, never had or used one, only the cable at mid-point, It let our heavy betacams get VERY low, almost as low as a high-hat. I still like and occasionally use ours, there is nothing better IMO on stairs or a hillside than these sticks, with their easy independent leg adjusting and one-handed deployment/collapsing… but I’m always more wary of walking away from it or in handling it. When keeping the legs closer together on the cable for maximum height, you trade some stability.

[Todd Terry]

I’m not the esteemed Mark, of course, but since I started this thread and have two sets of 35A legs I’ll chime in.

Yes, although I usually put the stick feet in a Manfrotto spider dolly, I do also frequently use it with just the cable spreader. It’s perfect fine… ON THE RIGHT SURFACE.

You’ll only want to use it like that on some kind of “grippy” surface. Dirt is fine, carpet is fine, asphalt, grass, rough exterior concrete… etc. It’s NOT advised on any slick-surface floor… tile, hardwood, etc… in those instances all it takes is for one leg to slip and it all goes down. In our studio the stage floor is a slick epoxy coating over concrete, so it’s completely unusable with just the cable spreader there. Also, if you do use it that way, don’t walk away and leave it unattended. If a kid or dog or whatever were to run by and bump one of the legs, down she goes.

And of course I only use it like that with camera only… we also use these sticks for a jib and I ALWAYS use it with a real spider dolly then… that’s a must.

I’m still looking for the perfect sticks/head. I covet your 35A with the 100mm bowl… mine have the 120mm bowl so I’m stuck with the bigass 50D head. Now that I’ve moved to the little Canon C300PL that means my tripod head weighs three times as much as the darn camera. Not a good combo. So I really need a lighter sticks/head set, but so far I’ve been unwilling to give up the instantly-adjust-all-three-legs-at-once feature. I’m just too spoiled with that. I’ve been trying to figure out myself if I could modify one of my sets and put a smaller bowl on it… but the way it’s made (the bowl and the leg brackets all cast out of a single piece of metal) it wouldn’t be wildly easy. Not impossible, but not a 10-minute DIY project, either.

T2

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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Aharon Rothschild]

@Mark Susko
Thanks for the heads up on lowering and raising the head! I’ll be sure to remove the camera and to keep my hands out of the tripod interior when doing so. Also I’ve taken the tripod down to high-hat height, with the legs almost completely spread out, and what I noticed was a small amount of “give” when pushing down on the camera. If you’ve done this without damaging the spreader cable then I’ll take that as part of the design ie the pressure just needs to be constant to keep the camera steady.

@Todd Terry
I’m planning to use this on a Epic shoot where I need the camera very low. I’ll use spikes in the dirt and I’ll use a spreader inside.
I completely agree with you about using a spreader with a jib. I’ve seen a cheap Davis & Sanforrd tripod literally crack apart under the moving lateral stress of a jib, I imagine shifting the weight around on legs without a spreader could potentially cause a collapse.
Also I’ve seen the 35a used with 100mm bowl heads. Yes there is the potential for “slip” but when locked down tight that wasn’t really a issue.

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