Gitzo GT 0530 / 1530 (or previous - 2006 - equivalents)

Hi, I am considering gt0530 or gt1530 for mountain hikes and trekking trips

with Canon 20D and lenses like 10-22, 17-85 and 70-200 f4.

I am prepared to take some compromise on stability for reduced weight. Does

anybody have experience with 0530, 1530 or similar? Which one will fit the

equipment?

I currently use Velbon Shrpa CF 530 which is very sturdy and weighs 2 kilos

with head. I would like to cut weight by half using Gitzo + lighter head (maybe

small Giottos).

Will 0530 or 1530 hold the weight?

Denis

the 0530 is 56cm only without the centre pole lifted, if you lift it, it will reduce stability. Packs to 36cm. Handles 4kg.

the 1530 is 134cm and packs to 62cm. Handles 8kg.

Add 20cm that will be the height gained by your ballhead and camera to the viewfinder level. 56cm will be pretty low, becoming 76cm that is under half the height of me.

Gen speaking the pro ratio is that the tripod legs should handle all your equip incl the ballhead for 3:1. If your rig and ballhead is 2kg then you should have a 6kg handling legs. The ballhead should be the same ratio camera and lens and flash etc....

Are you concerned with weight of the pods? Or the folding size?

If folding size, have a look of a thread just above yours. Feisol.com has released some that folds to 16 inches handling 12kg load and pretty cheap vs Gitzo's. One is 122cm for the legs, and the other is like the Gitzo travlers fold back 180deg for packing, it reaches 140cm while still packs down to 43cm but b/c of this style they say it handle 6kg load only.

Like you say, reduce stability is something you can accept.

I think if you cannot take a 2 kilo (with head) then you will need to accept a compromise. Gitzo has some, feisol.com has some as well noticeably cheaper.

Just bear in mind a daypack is 40-43cm usually, measure your own to be sure. If you are strapping it outside of your pack, I have not hike with it before, but I guess a extra 1 kilo isn't gonna matter much. If one is to reduce weight I would drop your mid lens, most pple tend to shoot ultra wide and tele focal lengths.

Re: the 1530 its 1.1kg, with a ballhead it'll probably get to 1.3 1.4kg anyway ...

Even if you get the traveler $650 from Gitzo, its 1kg, with little ballhead maybe 1.2 or 1.3kg.

I cannot find a way to get it all to 1kg, unless you use the 0530 which is v short, usable? Or even shorter like table top. Or just take a monopod or handhold?

Anything lighter IMO you won't have metal in it .. so you end up with a one legged monopod or a shorter tripod.

For the stability issue, you can always hook your cam bag on the bottom hook, but I have had a 1228 Gitzo 1.5kg legs only and a 500g head, on a windy day that was blown over and I caught it .... My feeling was if it was a 3kg tripod it would still gotten blown over.

I think for you, maybe you can pack it down smaller, but for the height its gotta be a workable height other than if you can happily use a waist height tripod.

Velbon may have some but no experience with that ...0.89kg legs only and a usable height.

http://www.virtualtraveller.org/tripods/tripods.htm

Rey,

Thanks a lot for the info - now digesting.

A bit confused - Gitzo 0530 is 131 cm and 5 kilo load - see catalog. With head and camera this surely gets you to a very good height?

http://www.reallyrightstuff.com/tripods/Gitzo_2007.pdf

Gitzo didn't have the 0530, I assumed it was the GT530 which was the 00 series.

Maybe the 0530 isn't the newer lineup of Gitzo ...

I think if you need to make do with 0.7kg then that's a choice. While it says it handles 5kg load, pple tend to define it as if you have 2kg camera, it should be 6kg load by the legs. Ratio 3:1.

There are the 5 seris Gitzo that has a specification of handling 25kg, obviously one may worry if you indeed did pop 25kg on it ....

My concern for it is maybe it may be not stable since its so light, the legs may wobble, maybe need sometime on the tripod before you fire the camera off.

130cm height tripod is more than enof. I have a 1228 of the same height but that's 1.5kg in weight. Gen pple tend to regard proper tripod usage a 2 series or above. A 1 series is pushing it and a 0 series is a compromise if you have to. I would check with RRS b/c on their site they say the former 1027/1028 you can take the centre pole out and put the ballhead in with reversible screw, maybe this one supports it too....

I checked the 0530 on that PDF you provided. Its 107cm without the centre pole, with the centre pole lifted to the max is 131cm. For such a underclassed tripod and inaddition you are going to pull that "1" pole up it will be unsteady (let alone without it raising it to most pple its unsteady).

The thing with pple, they don't use the centre pole unless they have to or are lazy or need that tiny bit of adjustments doing macro work.

Some pple take the centre pole out and replace it with a flat base.

Once you push the centre pole up its like holding onto a flag pole, instead of 3 poles you have 1 to support your camera.

I suggest if you need this lightweight then go for it, but don't use it at 131cm. Bend your back and neck and adjust to the 107cm tripod with a smallish head and camera probably add 15cm so thats a total of around 120cm height to viewfinder.

You can see from there the Gitzo 1026 (in that case) how it looks when the tripod is centre pole not raised and when its raised, you will also note how thin the legs are. The 1026 would be similar to your one, 1kg, raises to 97cm without the centre pole, you can pull it right up to get to 124cm (with a ballhead and camera) yeah you could say eye level but .....

http://www.virtualtraveller.org/tripods/tripods.htm

The best compromise I found for mny style of traveling is eye level shooting, go light as you can, but I won't raise the centre pole. Its already compromised enof.

1kg for Gitzo traveler series (1kg) or 1.2kg for Feisol or the Feisol's version of travelers 180deg fold back legs is a bit taller at 140cm (1.2kg). All heights are without the centre pole usage. All pack down to 16 inches, while Gitzo's has one of their's at 14 inches however that by Gitzo's own spec sheets only handles 2kg load, their 16 inches one handles 6 or such ..