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Which Head and Legs are Right for you?
Selection of a support system stems from three inputs:
Personal bias, load capacity, & surroundings— indoors or out,
and, if afield, whether any special conditions might
prevail (marsh, snow, height requirements, wind, etc).
Obviously, personal bias is variable. Some shooters
opt for flyweight convenience; others opt to invest in
just one head/leg setup beefy enough for their heaviest
loads. We can't predict your personal bias or the
environs in which you shoot, so that leaves only the
load to consider.
Some Guidelines & Comments:
 Make your support choices from top to bottom: the
ballhead you choose depends upon your camera
and lenses, and the tripod legs you choose depend
upon which head you pick. All components should
complement each other.
In choosing the right tripod legs for your ballhead,
the rule of thumb used to be that the minimum leg
mass ought to be ≈ 2½ times greater than the mass
of the head (not including camera/lens). With today's
high-performance carbon fiber models, you could
arguably drop to ≈ 1½ times—assuming disciplined
technique. But drop below this ratio, and you'll start
off too top-heavy.
Favor 3 section/leg tripods—
avoid 4 section/leg models for
most applications. That spindly
4th leg section compromises
rigidity when extended, and
cinching an extra joint on each
leg gets tedious.
Consider that you really
may need more than one
head/leg setup if you
shoot with both short
lenses and “heavy
artillery” (500mm-
600mm), because
the compromise implicit with a
single setup is
too severe.
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Common Gear in this Category:
- Nikon D40/50/80 with kit lenses
- Canon Rebel XT/XTi with kit lenses
- Point-n-Shoot cameras
Support System Options:
- GT0530 with Really Right
Stuff BH-25
- GT1530 with BH-25 or BH-40 head
Shop for BH-25 Pro:
Shop for GT0530:
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Common Gear in this Category:
- Nikon D200/D300
- Canon 30D/5D
- longest lens is a 70-200mm/f2.8,
300mm/f4, or 100-400mm/f4.5-5.6
Support System Options:
- GT1530/1540 with
Really
Right Stuff BH-40
- GT2330/2530/2540 with
BH-40/ BH-55
Shop for BH-40 LR:
Shop for GT1530:
Shop for GT2530:
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Common Gear in this Category:
- Nikon D2/D3-series
- Canon 1D-series
- Medium format
- longest SLR lens
is a 400mm/f2.8 or 500mm/f4
Support System Options:
- GT3530/3530S/3530LSV or G1410 with
Really
Right Stuff BH-55 head
Shop for BH-55 LR:
Shop for GT3530S:
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Common Gear in this Category:
- Nikon
D2/D3-series
- Canon 1D-series
- Medium
& Large format
- “heavy
artillery” 500mm-600mm
Support System Options:
- GT3530S/G1410 legs or RRS TP-243 Ground ‘Pod with
RRS BH-55
- full size Wimberley head
- Arca-Swiss B2 head for large format
Shop for BH-55 LR:
Shop for TP-243 tripod:
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Left: Ultra-Light Solution is our BH-25 Pro ballhead on GT1530 tripod—1.9 pounds.
Middle: Mid-Sized Solution is our BH-40 LR ballhead on GT2530 tripod—4.1 pounds.
Right: Full-Sized Solution is our BH-55 LR ballhead on GT3530S tripod—5.8 pounds.
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