Shel Belinkoff writes:
> [...] and I suppose if it is then you should use one, however,
> not at the sacrifice of a good, sturdy tripod.
Agreed. The Manfrotto offers more than sturdiness; it has a whole quality of
build. I like being able to take the legs to bits and wash the sand out after
shooting at the beach.
> If you feel a
> need for a level, then get one that you can attach to the
> camera. Bogen/Manfrotto make some heads with built-in levels,
> and that's always an option as well.
Also agreed: the 029 head is probably the cheapest one with levels built in,
although its build is a bit big for most 35mm cameras (I'm not sure what the
329 costs). The incremental cost of an 029 over (say) a 141 may be greater
than the cost of a shoe-mounted level anyway. However, you can upgrade
the head later if necessary (I found that the 029 is good for 6x7 cameras).
> I don't think
> it's hard to level the camera on uneven ground. The pans and
> tilts of the tripod head can do the leveling for you.
When you're on rough terrain (eg rocks) you need to level with the legs, at
least approximately, then use the head for fine-tuning. This way, your rig
won't fall over lens-first the moment you breathe on it! The Manfrotto legs are
great in this situation as they can click out to three different angles (the new
055 has four) - sometimes length adjustments alone aren't enough, and I like
to avoid extending the lowest sections anyway.
I often use the horizontal level for finely aligning my camera. Sometimes I
have no clearly-defined horizon in my landscapes and it's nice to at least
know that the scene will be recorded straight :)
Cheers,
- Dave
David A. Mann, B.E.
email [EMAIL PROTECTED] * http://www.digistar.com/~dmann/
"Why is it that if an adult behaves like a child they lock him up,
while children are allowed to run free on the streets?" -- Garfield
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