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Tripod and a Photowalk

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Tripod News

Just a quick post with some updates. I managed to get hold of a tripod yesterday, a great 20+ year old Manfrotto ART190. It is a bit beat up and scratched up but it works great, everything is smooth (much smoother than my old tripod!) and it seems very solid. It has a very old 3 way head on it at the moment, which I will replace with my Benro ball head as soon as I find myself a screwdriver of the appropriate size to undo the locking screws on the head baseplate. This was a great craigslist find, and only cost me a quick $40 and a detour 2 subway stations out of my way on the way home. A big thanks to the seller, by far the most organised craigslist seller I have encountered thus far.

Photowalk

In other news, I am planning on attending my first ever photo walk on Saturday. More so in an attempt to meet some new people in Toronto than to get any photos, but I am sure I will take some of those as well. I discovered a local Flickr user who appeared to have been attending a number of photowalks (based on their photostream) in 1 of the many Flickr Toronto groups. I sent him off a Flickr mail and received a reply back with links to a local Photowalk Flickr group and their website – torontophotowalks.ca. The next event is on Saturday, and happens to be in my neighbourhood, so I will join in and say “G’day”!

Gear

Choosing a Tripod

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In choosing a tripod I had to limit myself to something around $200. In this range there are few options which are of a large size. I looked into the Velbon range, but I was a bit concerned about the build quality. Teds Camera had a special going on the Slik 500 DX Pro at the time. It’s actually huge, stable and perfect, and of course much cheaper than the similar sized Manfrotto 055 series.

When purchasing a tripod, remember its probably worth splashing out a bit, because this is something that can last forever! A good stable tripod will always be useful. The Velbon range was a bit cheaper, but not as stable. The Manfrottos were much more expensive, and smaller and lighter. The 055 is about the same in stability (in my opinion) but I found the Slik to be more stable than the popular Manfrotto 190 series when comparing in the store.