Looking for a Couple Things....

[mcflickr]

Hi there,

Looking for some recommendations on budget friendly flashes and tripods. I'm using the Nikon D7000. I've done some work in the past, but my photography is mostly a personal hobby. I'd like a flash that's compatible with Nikon's CLS feature and can be used off camera, but doesn't necessarily have to be Nikon brand. As for the tripod - something good, but can't afford anything in the "professional" category.

Appreciate any advice.

Mike

 

[tirediron]

What is your budget? "Budget friendly" probably means something very different to me than it does to you... dollar figures will help immensely.

 

[mcflickr]

I'd like to cap my purchase of both items at $500 total....

 

[Derrel]

Look for a $150 to $200 tripod.

 

[tirediron]

Look for a $150 to $200 tripod.

Used... tripods are one of the best things to buy on the used market; often fifty cents on the dollar.

 

[Derrel]

Yes, USED tripods are a good value.

 

[minicoop1985]

Look at Yongnuo flashes. There's some new iteration of them compatible with the 622 TX transmitter. Buy those.

 

[Frank F.]

Hi there,

Appreciate any advice.

Mike

Lots of very good advice here: Strobist

 

[TCampbell]

I quality tripod should be able to take a bit of abuse and not break. There are lots of sub-$100 tripods available... but they're not so durable. You'll find that better tripods have detachable heads (and often don't even include a head) so you pick the tripod (leg assembly all the way up to the shoulder and it ends in a 3/8" tripod head bolt. And then you pick out whatever head you prefer to use (ball heads are popular for still photography.)

Most better tripods also allow for an adjustable (multi-position) leg spread. This allows you to spread the legs very wide if what you really want is to get the tripod to hold the camera squat down low to the ground. Also the center column is often removable or can be swapped for a short post (so when you adjust the tripod to squat low to the ground the center post isn't so long that it prevents the camera from going low.) On one of my tripod, I had the option of buying the optional short-post (I did) and on my more expensive Manfrotto tripod the center post is removable in such a way that the head can bolt directly to the tripod with no post attached at all (getting that info from Manfrotto was a bit of an effort... the manual didn't explain it, the dealer didn't know, I phoned Manfrotto and their normal help-desk folks were surprised that such a high-end tripod had no short center post options available at all -- they finally transferred me to some 2nd level support and FINALLY I got someone who actually knew that the reason there was no "short" post option was because the tripod was designed so it wasn't needed. He explained how to do it and it works great (once you know the secret).

I do prefer the lever-lock legs. On better tripods you'll often have an option if you want 3-sections vs. 4-section legs (you can set up 3 section legs faster but 4 section leg tripods often fold up slightly smaller.)

Anyway... these are the sorts of things you might not think about BEFORE you buy the tripod, and then might run into the issues as you try to use it.

Also... sizing....

The tripod should be tall enough so that with legs fully extended, you should be able to set the center column to half-way extended and with your tripod head attached and camera attached to that... you should be able to be at eye-level to your camera. This way if you're shooting "upward" you can just raise the center column. To shoot downward, you can lower the center column (without needing to re-adjust the leg height). I often don't prefer to set my tripod to "eye level" height (for many landscape perspectives it's more attractive to get low for some foreground interest and even for human subjects / portraiture if the camera is too high it will make your subjects look "short") So I'm not saying to shoot with the camera that high, but the tripod should be able to reach that high if you need it.

Buy a good tripod and it'll be the last time in your life that you spend money on a tripod. Buy a cheap tripod and you'll just be buying another one later.

 

[Dave Colangelo]

As for the tripod it really depends what you are looking for, in the used space you can get just about what ever you want for a decent price if you are willing to look around a bit. You can grab a nice used bogen on craigslist/ebay for under 100 with a head and a single bracket. They come in all shapes and sizes but something like a 3001 (or similar) is fairly easy to come by these days. However these tend to be on the bigger size and you may not find them practical to carry around if you are say hiking or moving around a lot with your gear. If you want something smaller I really like what MeFoto has to offer (they are pretty reasonable even new). I use my D3300 and my Hasselblad 500 C/M on my MeFoto all the time. There are a few sizes to chose from, they are light and have a pretty nice case.

You may want to consider getting just the tripod, sans head, then buying your self a nice ball head for it but thats up to you of course.

Like most things tripods have an (ironic if that) triple constraint, you have height, weight and price, chose 2 to optimize at the cost of the third....

Dave