Tripod - plane spotting - nikon coolpix p610

[F4e]

Greetings,

I'm new to photography. Recently i bought a nikon p610 and i would like to shot some birds at the airport.(mostly take offs and landings)

1) Which tripod woud be suitable for me? What characteristics should a tripod have?

2) What settings must the p610 have in order to take successful aircraft photos and videos?


Thank you in advance.

F4e

 

[Designer]

Not so much about the tripod itself, but I would probably want a pistol-grip ball head for easy, fast setting and panning.

 

[dennybeall]

That's not too heavy a camera so an inexpensive tripod will work. A pistol grip ballhead may work the best but you can do it with any smooth working head. For takeoffs you'll want to track horizontally without any vertical motion but then as it takes off you want vertical and horizontal so the key is "SMOOTH MOVING".
Your camera can handle the speed and f-stop easily as long as it's daylight. Try 500 to 1000th of a second to stop the action. You can read up on panning also to get some interesting effects.

 

[F4e]

Thank you both for the help and the advices.

What would be the best solution under 100€ ?
Tripod or a pistol grip ballhead? Could you link some of them?

Once again,thank you.

 

[dennybeall]

Sorry, no idea how much that is in US Dollars. I've frankly bought mine used and paid less than $100 for most of them. You can pay from $50 to six or seven hundred dollars if you get the best head with the lightest tripod.
Personally I'd do the planes hand held, but then I've been doing it for 50 years.

 

[F4e]

I think it'll be hard for me to start doimg the planes hand held.

No problem,you don't need to know the price in €.

Could you link some tripods/pistols grip headballs that should do the job,within 50-120 us dollars from amazon.com?

Thank you,i appreciate your help.

 

[F4e]

I see some plane spotters use manfrotto heads instead of pistol grip headballs.

Would manfrotto head 128RC do the job for me?

 

[astroNikon]

I don't know if this is out of your budget
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0071BIQZ...TF8&colid=3KP6I41S7YGJR&coliid=I2VY6SFX766RYR

but I use it for a fixed standing position for aircraft (but I do 99% handheld)
and it might be too big for your bridge camera
I use it with a full size dslr and 150-600 lens

 

[F4e]

Sorry but i can't afford that. Thank you for the suggestion anyway.

Anything under 80$ ?