Wooden Tripods

[kevin_austin]

There seems little discussion of wooden tripods in this forum.

 

Does anyone have experience of using Ries, Berlebach or Stabil

tripods which all seem competent designs suitable for MF, reasonably

quick operating, probably more shock resistant than aluminium or CF

and not unreasonably priced for the quality and craftmanship?

 

Kevin Austin

[patrik_bjorklund]

I use a Berlebach UNI 16 tripod and it is very steady. I have mounted a Gitzo 1570 panorama head and the tripod and head weights approx 7-7.5kg. I use the tripod with my Pentax 645 system and the pictures come out sharp even with my A* 600mm/f5.6 with slower shutterspeeds.

The buildingquality of the tripod is excellent but it is a slowworking tripod, sometimes it can be tricky to extend the legs when you are in a hurry. I can recommend the Berlebach UNI tripods for the work for I do (landscapes). There are also lighter UNI tripods if you do not intend to use long telephoto lenses.

 

I also use a Gitzo CF tripod but I do not want to recommend that with use of A* 600mm/f5.6 (maybe not with the FA* 300mm/f4).

 

I also know people who use the Stabil tripods with Hassy gear and no shakin' with FE 350mm/f4 (mirror lockup).

[peter_olsson]

I use the Stabil Snabb (Stabil speed) large model, which is 0,99 m

when not extended! Sure, it's long but it's a great tripod to work

with, especially in the outdoors. I use it with Hasselblad with 180

mm lens, sometimes with flashgrip and a Sunpak 120J mounted. Even

indoors it's good if placed on a thick rug (the feet were not meant

for polished wooden floors...). The tripod is sturdy when fully

extended and even more sturdy when extended to an "intermediate"

position (which I mostly do due to the waste-level finder of the

Hasselblad). It's very quick to setup and take down and it's

comfortable to carry over both shoulders (no centerpost). The woold

makes it nice to handle without gloves in cold weather. It has

become very popular among scandinavian nature photographers working

with medium format equipment, for a good reason.

 

I suppose all the tripods you mention share the benefit of

independent setting of "leg-angles" which is one of the other major

benefits of wooden tripods. I choose Stabil because of speed of

operation, reviews in a Swedish photo-magazine, talk with the man

who makes them, built quality and price. I had not heard of Ries

when I bought my tripod but they are probably excellent (but more

expensive). The Berlebach was not recommended by a friend who found

his model to fragile in some respects (but I think he has an older

model) and the models I have seen didn't extend high enough without

becoming very heavy.

[paul roark]

I've heard that wood and carbon fiber are less subject to vibration than metal. I've tested many metal tripods, with the goal of finding the lightest tripod that will hold the camera/lens combination steady -- for backpacking weight purposes. It seems clear that metal does indeed transmit the focal plane shutter shock back into the system. They almost seem to act like tuning forks. For this reason, I find leaf shutters (like in my Rollei TLR) to give the best results, by far, on light tripods. I'd be very interested if anyone has actually done some comparisons of wood, carbon fiber and metal tripods to see whether the differences are significant. I might also add that with non-square formats, one must test the camera/tripod combination in both the horizontal and vertical framing positions. Vertical moving focal plane shutters, like on most modern 35 mm cameras, do MUCH better when the camera is in the horizontal position than when it is in the vertical framing position. The focal plane shutters appear to need as much mass as possible directly in line with the shutter movement.

 

Paul Roark

http://www.silcom.com/~proark/photos.html

[jeff_drew3]

I have a wood tripod for portable telescope astronomical viewing. All the potential vibrations and wind current issues surface at high powers, including camera use. Most astronomers prefer wooden tripods, the heftier - the better! If you are anchoring to dirt ground, then spikes help. On concrete or wooden decks etc, I suggest anti-vibration pads from Celestron (under $50). I routinely use Gitzo metal and Bogen metal tripods with hard rubber ends, no problems up to 6x7 format with leaf shutters. HMM! Focal plane shutters with mirror flap giving more vibration? Pentax 67 guru's routinely use MLU even on tripod. A really hefty wood tripod IS a beautiful tool to use and definitely worth it in my opinion. I'm saving for a new one now, and some are lighter metal ones of same size.

[gary_voth]

I recently got to try another photographer's Ries tripod at an outdoor photography workshop. Very impressive and quick to use, and reasonably light for its size. It's not the best solution for backpacking because it does not get small enough, but when working out of a vehicle it would be great. Besides, they look cool in a retro sort of way (even my non-photographer wife commented on this). I am considering buying one for myself.

[mikael_larsson]

I would like to hear if anyone of you have any good ideas about what type of wood that gives the best damping performance in a tripod? I

am leaning towards one of the Stabil tripods, because of the creative idea with the lower sections made of metal to give some protection against wet conditions, and because of its straightforward design in general.

 

However, I have noticed that several other wood tripods are made of ash wood, while the Stabil is made of oak (except a variant of their little macro tripod). I read a comment in an advertisement for a wood tripod made from ash wood (I think Berlebach) that ash has very long fibers and therefore is an optimum choice for use in a tripod.

 

Any comments on this?

 

Mikael Larsson

[p_l_jensen]

I just received my Berlebach 7013 which I bought as my backbacking lighweight tripod. It

weights 1,8 kg and anything weighting less is basically useless anyway. The first impression

is very good; its seems at least as stable as my Manfrotto 055Nat.

The Berleback have several features making them better than the Gitzos and Manfrottos. The

leg joints makes for better mass coupling; the won't dent (something that killed my Gitzo);

legs don't bend (something that killed my Manfrotto); legs won't freeze like Gitzos; oblivious

to water; they float. They are also easy to repair.

I would forget everything about damping vibrations. The most important thing with a tripod

is mass coupling. If you remove mass or coupling from this equation you're left with a

useless tripod. Dampening can only happen after the fact and then its too late. You need to

avoid vibrations to happen in the first place and for that you ned mass coupling.

[doug_brightwell1]

What do you mean by "mass coupling"? Can you explain that a little more?

 

Thanks...

[pawel1]

I actually love my Ries for my Wisner 8x10 Technical Field Camera - the mounting plate and stability are superb. However, for my MF work, I use a Gitzo 1325 with Swiss Arca - much easier to lug around.

 

FYI - there was a thread on wooden tripods back in '97 - I hope this link works.

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0002Nf

[OCULUS New York]

I use the big Ries with their tilt head. It's heavier than I need for a Rollei outfit, but does the trick The larger top plate is teh realweight culprit).

 

My favorite attribute of the wood is bare-hand handling in cold weather. In upstate NY that's no insignificant consideration. (And I've got the battery extension cord to keep the Rollei clicking from my pocket). Ries is gorgeous stuff.

 

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