Another tripod question: Carbon fiber vs. aluminum

[flea77]

One thing that hasn't really been looked at is durability. CF has it's uses, but it's not the magical amazing good for everything material it's made out to be. An aluminium tripod would be much more impact resistant, and you wouldn't have to worry about it unraveling.

Flea-Carbon Fiber is usually much stiffer than most other materials, I don't think it's shock absorption would be noticeable.

True enough about impact resistance, you do have to use more care with CF. CF can be made stiffer in one direction, allowing slight movement in another. This really is not about "shock absorption" as much as vibration dampening.

Oh and carbon fibre absorbs high frequency vibrations. This tripod would be of great benefit if it's mounted on your bike, but it does nothing to absorb the kind of low frequency vibrations that say a passing car would make.

You are correct in that it absorbs high frequency vibrations, and that a single car would produce a low frequency vibration. What about hundreds of cars on an overpass? What about a parking garage? High rise building where all the equipment to run the building is built into the structure? While much of this discussion is theoretical I can tell you that my CF seems to take better night shots than my alu does, with the same camera, they just seem sharper.

Allan

 

[KmH]

..........While much of this discussion is theoretical I can tell you that my CF seems to take better night shots than my alu does, with the same camera, they just seem sharper.

Allan

Kind of like the trick question: "What color was Custers gray horse?"