Which tripod for my Hassi?

Hi all, I own a Hasselblad 501CM (with CB80 lens and the foldable finder). Now I want to get a good tripod for it. My dealer recommended the Gitzo G1226 (together with the G1377M ball head). According to Gitzo's catalog, this tripod seams to be somewhat small for my setup? Has anyone here experiences with the G1226 or any other Gitzo tripods together with the Hassi? I want to use it for portrait and landscape photography. Carbon tripods are out of my budget. TIA Stefan

Stefan, I recently bought a Gitzo tripod and head for my newly acquired Fuji 6x9, which I use for landscapes. I find the series 3 Gitzo (one up the range from the one you mention) superb. Mine is the 1320. I appreciate I'm using a rangefinder not an slr, but I have used slrs in the past and consider the larger Gitzo tripods to be ideal, you'll not be dissapointed with either build quality or stability. BTW, I got the low profile 3 way head.

 

David.

Like much other equipment, there are ergonomic issues that will ultimately decide if you can use something or not. I had a Gitzo tripod for a year and never liked the twist locks. I sold it and bought a Linhof (I now have two), which have flip locks and quite a few other ergonomic advantages (for me) over Gitzo tripods. I would recommend spending an hour or two with different tripods to find out if you like them.

 

The downside of Linhof tripods is that they are harder to find and, when bought new, as expensive as carbon fiber Gitzos.

Gitzo 320 is a superb tripod, but it is quite heavy. If you don't have long lens like 300mm and above, Gitzo 122* should be fine. I am using G1227 (3 sections instead of 4 on 1228) and it works fine with my Rollei6008i setup.

If you decide that the 1226 Gitzo is sufficient, you should look into some of the similarly-sized carbon fiber tripods available from other mfgs. There are CF tripods in this general size available from Velbon, Mamiya and Hama, and all of them are much less expensive than the Gitzo. You might decide the Gitzo is worth the extra money, but you very well might see no functional difference and decide to save a couple hundred dollars. On the other hand, if you decide to go with the 1300-series size Gitzo, I'm not aware of any CF competitors.

I have use both a 224 and a 1227 with a small 4x5 field camera with no problems, so I would think the 1226 would be fine for the Hassy unless you are going to use lenses larger than the 250. The head is much more important than another 1/4" in leg diameter. Put your money there.

Do you hike???

 

Walking 5 miles with an 8 pound tripod is an excellent test of character. The nice thing about hasselblad is the pre-release which allows you to fire the leaf shutter without the "whoosh" vibration of mirror & secondary shutter shennanigans. You can get away with alot lighter tripods than most folks consider acceptable, as long as you pre-release and pay attention for wind induced vibration on the tripod legs. The carbon fiber units are great, but expensive. Its better to take a light unit on a long outing than leave the beast at home.

If you are going to be carrying the tripod and camera over any

distance you either need an assistant or the lightest possible

setup (with a great camera bag).

 

If you use mirror lock and lean down on the shoulder of the tripod

to stop wind vibration, a lighter tripod works fine with the

Hasselblad cameras.

 

In the carbon tripods, I found the Manfrotto Carbon One

(http://www.manfrotto.com) to be a good price and, after a year of

regular use in many situations, I am happy with its performance.

I prefer its clip locks over the Gitzo's ring locks because, for me,

they are quicker to lock and unlock and are more certain. I own

the Gitzo 1228 but I do not use it as much as the Manfrotto.

 

Regards

Peter

I've been using a G1226 with FOBA's mini-superball for the last

year with my 503 outfit. I find it perfect in both size and weight.

Thanks for all your answers so far. They are much appreciated. I especially liked the prerelease answers. I didn't think of this so far - using a smaller/lighter tripod and use the prerelease.

 

I think I'll go with the G1226. To me it seems to have a good combination of size and weight. And for landscape photography, I will use the prerelease anyway.

 

Thanks again. Stefan

Monfrotto 441 carbon tripod is good for quickly cliping on or off!

Monfrotto 460Mg is also a good smaller and lighter head for operation on three ways!

Gizo 1276M is also a good head for it's wide-angle operation creamyly!

I just wanted to give you an update: I finally got the G1226/G1377M combination. I use the tripod&ballhead together with my 501CM/80mm set (sometimes with a 2x teleconverter).

 

I own them for about 2 years now and I must say that I am very happy with the combination. The Gitzo is a very high quality, very rigid tripod. It took me some time to get used to the rings. The G1377M ballhead is very good, it has a friction lock and a panoramic tilt.