tripod for macro and landscape

vickylou01 · Feb 4, 2012

I am having the same dilemma, I am looking for an affordable tripod to use solely for close up and macro photography. I am a novice and have only had my 60mm macro lens 1 month. I was hopeing to be able to use it hand held but have found this is very difficult with slight movement resulting in loss of focus. My hands are not steady enough when trying to manually focus either using the view finder or live view with x5 or x10 magnification, I guess lots of practise with help improve my technique. Can anyone recommend an affordable tripod with head for under £100. I want to be able to use it close to the ground as well as at full height. A geared head appears to be way out of my budget so i guess i am looking at a 3 way or ball head. Thanks.

mapgirl · Feb 4, 2012

vickylou01 said:
I am having the same dilemma, I am looking for an affordable tripod to use solely for close up and macro photography. I am a novice and have only had my 60mm macro lens 1 month. I was hopeing to be able to use it hand held but have found this is very difficult with slight movement resulting in loss of focus. My hands are not steady enough when trying to manually focus either using the view finder or live view with x5 or x10 magnification, I guess lots of practise with help improve my technique. Can anyone recommend an affordable tripod with head for under £100. I want to be able to use it close to the ground as well as at full height. A geared head appears to be way out of my budget so i guess i am looking at a 3 way or ball head. Thanks.

First, I want to thank everyone who replied to my initial posting. You all were VERY helpful. And I am happy with what I ended up buying.
vickylou01--I was just going to post about what I did buy, and, hopefully it will help you too, since I also work with a 60mm macro.
I got the Manfrotto 190XB Tripod Legs. That model has a center column which comes out, so you can get all the way to the ground. I just wasn't comfortable with the 190xPROB version and its center column that can be swung out to a horizontal position. It didn't seem stable enough for me. The XB is perfect.
I'd never worked with a ball head before, so I went to a camera shop to try it out and I hated it! Clearly this is a very personal choice, since many people prefer them. So I got a Manfrotto 804RC2 3-Way Pan/Tilt Head with RC2 Quick Release & 200PL-1.
Since you are just starting out with macro photography, you can certainly stop with good legs and a good head. When the time comes, you might consider getting mag slider. It allows you to make minor adjustments to your framing and focusing without having to move the entire tripod. I got the Velbon Super Mag Slider, which seemed a decent compromise between the cheapie Chinese ones on e-bay and the super expensive ones elsewhere.
Best of luck and enjoy your 60mm!