Dear J-
I’m now happy (?) to report that the home for unwanted tripods is nearing capacity. In the past month I’ve doubled the number of tripods for no appreciable reason. The latest orphan is a Bogen 3051 standing with a “FREE” sign in front of a neighbor’s house. After the fiasco that is the 3036, I swore off that style of tripod (with individually-adjustable leg braces; any time you think that you save with the quick-flip or quick-deploy legs you lose in screwing down those individual braces, doubly so as you try to figure out how to get them all even — it’s a great concept, but the execution is lacking), but free is free, and I’ll probably sell it, the 3036, and the large Manfrotto 116 (mk 2) head that came with the eBay Gitzo 415.
Yes, the Gitzo 326 is still hanging around somewhere hoping that I’ll take it somewhere (someday I’ll get around to converting that Bogen hex plate system to something more useful, I swear — the Kirk SQRC/Hex is calling to me), but in the meantime, there’s the broken-center-column 415 as yet another interesting project (on these systematic tripods, the whole center section pops out — you can swap it for a flat plate, a rapid column, or a geared column). It seems to be a 4-series tripod, based on the leg diameter, but predates the wing locks for the first section. It’s an interesting bit of history, but assuming I can ever find out how to order spare parts, new locks are going on as soon as I can get my hands on them.
You might assume that all I ever think about is camera gear. You would probably not miss by much. I continue to obsess over wide-angle options, wondering how good that Leica-rebadged Minolta fisheye is compared with the equivalent Nikkor 16mm f/3.5, or if both options are silly compared to having a full-blown Digital Zuiko 11~22mm (or the 12~60, honestly not that much more, though not as wide, either) instead.
Mike
Tags: 3036, 3051, 326, 415, bogen, fisheye, gitzo, tripod, zuiko
Dear J- 
1 September 2008 at 7:01 am |
I have to admit I found my mind wandering during the recent Founders’ Day festivities – to the idea of building one of those thingies to adapt 35mm lenses for video equipment. I swear by the Power of Greyskull, this will happen before next year’s Games commence.
1 September 2008 at 7:07 pm |
Problem now is that I have so many projects to think about — extracting the optics out of the Vest Pocket Kodaks, the Macro Focusing Teleconverter, repairing a couple of tripods, getting them sold off, etc. On the plus side, I now have Fridays off for a while …
2 September 2008 at 6:53 am |
………wait a minute, where’s the “” tag?
7 September 2008 at 7:12 am |
You interested in selling that Bogen 3051?
7 September 2008 at 6:24 pm |
Kevin: eventually. I need to fix a recalcitrant leg on the 3051 before I flog it off. Seriously, though, the 3051 is a beast of a legset: twelve pounds alone without a head. Unless you’ve got a dolly lined up for it I can’t imagine it making a living in the field.