Thoughts On Tripods

1. any tripod worth it's salt should reach to just below your chin without using any centre post rise - unfortunately this eliminates 90% of all tripods - it's not that all photographs should be made at eye level - talk about boring - it's that you often can see over things and a shorter tripod can't, and sometimes you do want eye level or even higher (and that's the only time you can justify the centre column - set the camera with the column down, raise the column - this requires a column that isn't rotating so you don't re-aim the camera on raising the column. Which leads to point 2
2. center columns are a good idea - it's all very well saying that it decreases stability, but there are times - 95+% of my images are shot with no rise on the centre column - but at least some of those 5% wouldn't have been possible without it.
3. leg braces - you know - those braces that run from the bottom of the centre column out to the legs - utterly useless, with one possible exception - there are a few tripods in which the distance of this brace is adjustable and thus the angle of the leg - still a well made tripod doesn't need this and has better ways to deal with leg spread.
4. centre column cranks - useless - just how heavy is your camera anyway - left over from 30 lb. movie film cameras.
5. tubular metal legs - I once had a bogen tripod and managed to catch a leg in the car door - it took some tricky work with padded pliers at home to almost take out the kink that was created and even then the leg stuck a little bit.
6. wooden tripods - I loved my Berlebach tripod for it's tough toss it around, drop it in water wooden legs. It was a bit light for the large cameras and long lenses I tend to use. It's weakest point was not the wooden legs, it was the top of the swivelling centre column (the tripod has a sort of ball head/lock for the centre column that is just wonderful). The base upon which you sit the camera was a bit light weight and had slight play. Still, it worked well for several years for 4X5 on down until I broke down and purchased a carbon fibre gitzo 1348 (4 section, goes higher than me) and then has a centre column on top of that. Mind you it cost 3 times as much and while a bit sturdier, does require more care.
7. tripod locks - take your pick - levers are faster but occasionally catch part of you, rotating locks are slower but don't stick out, don't catch on things and you can control the tightness - the gitzo has rotating collars and frankly they are just fine - I don't find them terribly slow. Not everyone agrees though.
8. tripod heads - the absolutely worst head is a tripod with no leveller and a three way pan tilt head on it. These are horrible and should be relegated to 8 mm. movie making. That said, ball heads are less than perfect - some are huge yet not super sturdy, others seize up at the wrong time.I use an arca swiss with a knob tightener only because I took the lever base and put it on a wooden slider for stitching - I love lever locks - I distrust knobs - with a clamp that allows the camera to slide right out either end unless perfectly tight I'm always checking the knob to see if it is tight enough, and carrying the camera on the tripod and over the shoulder is only done after checking the knob, again. With the lever, it's on or it's off. I suppose a branch could catch it and flip it but it hugs around the Really Right Stuff base so it's not much of a risk and has never ever happened.
9. the lower the head, the steadier the tripod - sticking six inches of ball head on top of a tripod is like permanently using six inches of centre column. I have an arca swiss and am tempted by the new Really Right Stuff ball heads.
10. feet - my own preference for outdoor work is a metal pointed foot - but that's not what I have on my Gitzo so perhaps I'm too fussy - and at least the gitzo feet are easier to clean mud off of and are ready for indoor work.
11. quick release plates - are great, few serious photographers try to fiddle with finding threading and tightening a tripod screw - they use quick release plates of one type or another.