Ready, Willling And Able

Cameras, lenses, tripods..
Walter Glover
Posts: 1270
Joined: 31 Jul 2012, 22:31
Location: Leichhardt, NSW

Ready, Willling And Able

Postby Walter Glover » 19 Apr 2021, 23:07

On the road again, naturally.

© Walter Glover All rights reserved. No reproduction rights granted.

Tomorrow I receive my 2nd Pfizer COVID-19 jab and thereafter I'll be sble to get out into the world waving sheets of film at motifs that take my fancy for the first time since December 2019.
I have scaled down to a Horseman 45 HD atop a Leofoto LS-223C Portable Professional Carbon Fibre table top tripod with Leofoto G2 Geared Head panorama head standing on the folding table at the front of my motorised wheelchair.

Of course digital would be more facile, but where would the fun be in that?

Image
Walter Glover

"We see things not as they are. We see them as we are."
Emanuel Kant

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Maris
Posts: 881
Joined: 27 Jul 2012, 16:02
Location: Noosa

Re: Ready, Willling And Able

Postby Maris » 21 Apr 2021, 10:02

BRILLIANT!

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Barry Kirsten
Posts: 230
Joined: 27 Feb 2015, 11:13
Location: Brookfield, Vic.

Re: Ready, Willling And Able

Postby Barry Kirsten » 21 Apr 2021, 15:04

That's great, Walter. Now I see it I understand how well the set-up will work. I'm thrilled for you. Good hunting!

Walter Glover
Posts: 1270
Joined: 31 Jul 2012, 22:31
Location: Leichhardt, NSW

Re: Ready, Willling And Able

Postby Walter Glover » 22 Apr 2021, 00:25

Thanks Barry,

It has been a very busy couple of weeks gettting things sorted and having. my two pfizer jabs. I'll be in touch now yjat the dust is settling.
Walter Glover

"We see things not as they are. We see them as we are."
Emanuel Kant

Mick Fagan
Posts: 412
Joined: 24 Sep 2015, 21:20
Location: Melbourne

Re: Ready, Willling And Able

Postby Mick Fagan » 12 Jun 2021, 18:21

Walter, that looks pretty good and most importantly, workable.

I didn't know what that geared head looked like, looked it up and it seems to be as good as a ball joint in what it can do, but is geared.

Mick.

Walter Glover
Posts: 1270
Joined: 31 Jul 2012, 22:31
Location: Leichhardt, NSW

Re: Ready, Willling And Able

Postby Walter Glover » 13 Jun 2021, 03:48

Mick,

It's quite amazing. First of all, the price is very competitive at less than $300 with currency fluctuations. It's light in weight has quite a load rating, and it's more compact than many ball heads. Arca-Swiss do one too at about 3 times the price.

My first experience with geared heads was in film & TV and they were massive. In stills I started using them when Manfrotto came up with them but they were all heavy for their sizes — 400, 410 & 405. Benro have a knock-off of the 405 with an Arca plate but the TILT control comes out at 90º which is fine for 35mm but useless with an LF folder.

Where I got mine: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/13377994570 ... %7Ciid%3A1
Walter Glover

"We see things not as they are. We see them as we are."
Emanuel Kant

Mick Fagan
Posts: 412
Joined: 24 Sep 2015, 21:20
Location: Melbourne

Re: Ready, Willling And Able

Postby Mick Fagan » 13 Jun 2021, 09:18

Very interesting Walter, I like the construction and think it will be more than suitable for your use, but I question the stated weight limit of 20kg as being obtainable, let alone doable. With a weight of 360gm for the head, placing 20kg on that is going to be interesting, providing that your tripod could handle 20kg. I think they are dreaming a bit there; or perhaps letting people think it should be good for their camera?

Having used counterbalanced studio stands with equipment hovering around 10-15kg and knowing just how solid the stand itself is, I would really like to see them balance a 20kg camera; just the once. :mrgreen:

This is available not that far from my place, it has a load limit of 15kg.

https://borge.com.au/manfrotto-809-salo ... gL9TvD_BwE

Mick.

Walter Glover
Posts: 1270
Joined: 31 Jul 2012, 22:31
Location: Leichhardt, NSW

Re: Ready, Willling And Able

Postby Walter Glover » 13 Jun 2021, 17:34

Mick,
I don't think I'd even want to trust 20kg on the plexiglass table on the wheelchair. I've pared the weight down as it is and sort of favour the the Sunwayfoto Levelling base.

Dear old Borge. I wonder how he's keeping. I shudder tto think about how any Manfrotto anything could be worth the price. I had, and worked with Foba stands and at one time at Arnotts Biscuits haad to work with a Barton stand after being in a studiio with a ubiquitous Cambo. I notice Lachlan is flogging a Manfrotto 190.
Walter Glover

"We see things not as they are. We see them as we are."
Emanuel Kant

Mick Fagan
Posts: 412
Joined: 24 Sep 2015, 21:20
Location: Melbourne

Re: Ready, Willling And Able

Postby Mick Fagan » 14 Jun 2021, 13:50

Well the studios where I worked used Foba stands, we were about 5 minutes away from Borge's in the same suburb, Port Melbourne. More than a few times they gave us a Manfrotto studio stand to use as an enticement, we never kept them and as their pricing structure was not quite over the top, but close, we never even gave them a thought.

We used to get various things on loan in the hope we would purchase, but with one exception, I don't think we ever did. The exception was the TTL for 4x5" cameras using a Gossen meter with the long flat probe, although it was branded Sinar (I think) but was made by Gossen. We only had one of those metering systems and it was used almost exclusively by one photographer doing exacting product photography, no one else got a look in.

When he left no one else took it up, when I left a year or so later, it was still sitting unused in a drawer. Nice system, but could be a bit difficult unless you really understood how hot or cold your E6 was running and you were keeping within a 4 stop highlight to shadow range.

I've never seen a Barton stand.

Mick.

Walter Glover
Posts: 1270
Joined: 31 Jul 2012, 22:31
Location: Leichhardt, NSW

Re: Ready, Willling And Able

Postby Walter Glover » 15 Jun 2021, 01:09

WOW!! That must have been the early probe, made by Gossen and initially teamed with Linhof. I had the later one which teamed with a Broncolor meter. It worked okay for me but my use of spot-metering as an exposure determining method was incredibly short lived for both colour and black & white. Coming from cine exposure was set as a rule by incident meters and spot meters were used to checksubject brightness within that exposure setting. I don't know about you but for me sales pitch of the four-stop window was already second nature after years before the mast. I gave the Zone VvI modified Pentax 1º spot a go for a while too.

Maybe Barton was more Sydney than they'd have had us belirve. (lucky you) Where Foba (and Cambo) had nylon roller-bearings and counterweight running inside the column supported on a masssive base yhe Barton had alloy casting collar running on a chrome 2-inch pipe on all on top of a triangular base running bakelite furniture castors.

In '72, '73 I worked for Arnotts shooting biscuits for repackaging the entire range for metrification. We had three extra tall Barton stands each with a Linhof Kardan Bi 8x10 shooting straight down in plan orientation at just a whisker bigger than 1:1 magnification with an Apo-Ronar 300mm lens. Up a ladder reaching across the GG up a ladder allowing for a aa two-foot high box for the subject stage, the object distance and 600mm plus of bellows shooting at f/90 for DOF of maybe the depth of3 or 44 Monte Carlos, The Münchener boss had only believed in tungsten and colour correction was done with packs of Wratten gels so you can imagine the losses due to wobble. [You can imagine the fun that shooting the chocolate range!]
Walter Glover

"We see things not as they are. We see them as we are."
Emanuel Kant


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