Attention RIES tripod users

David Hall · Feb 8, 2003

I have (and really love) a Ries tripod, and had always used it with a ball head. I just got the Ries head with two movements; the kind of head you screw the camera too every time.

Is there a trick to getting the camera on and tight and pointed in the right direction quickly? Seems to take about four minutes and it's hard to either turn the little thumbscrew under the mounting plane or hold the screw and turn the camera. The latter seems like it will scratch the underside of the camera in no time.

Thanks for whatever you can offer!

dgh

jmcd · Feb 8, 2003

Set your camera on the head, so that the spring-loaded screw pops into the mounting threads in the base of the camera. While you hold the camera steady with your left hand, turn the camera mounting screw with short, rapid right thumb movements (about five seconds). Then square and orient the camera with the mounting base to your liking, and snug the screw. To pan the camera, just barely loosen the long screw that holds the head to the tripod. If you have leveled the tripod according to the bubble level on the base of the head, you will have a pleasant panning experience. Snug the screw when your camera is pointed in the right direction.

I love the two-way head. I have used mine for years, and think it is plenty handy and dependable. Familiarity and practice will probably help a lot to get your set up time to seconds.

David Hall · Feb 9, 2003

Jmcd,

Thanks. I tried it and it did go much faster. I still found myself kind of jockeying both the camera and the thumbscrew at the end to make sure it was really snug. Is that normal?

And since you're a wisened user of both the head and the tripod, any other tricks with either that might be of use?

Thanks again...

dgh

carlweese · Feb 9, 2003

The spring loaded screw on the Ries head should be nearly as fast to use as a quick release. If you don't have a plastic spacer between the tripod platform and the base of the head, you should add one-- plastic lid off a coffee cann works fine--this will make panning action smoother and locking more secure. Ries supplies current models with a plastic spacer and you can get one from them if the coffee can lid doesn't sound elegant.

bmoulton · Feb 9, 2003

The previous posts suggest excellent approaches. I wopuld add only this. Consider a quick release tripod head miunt. The base is mounted permanently to the Reis tripo, the other section to the camera you use. Setting up becomes a lot quicker. If you install the tripod head miunt and aim it toward one leg, then anytime you mount the camera onto the tripod you have established your leading or aim head. You can then open legs and point camera at the subject.
Bob

jmcd · Feb 9, 2003

There are two leg locks to secure each leg at extension. I usually only use the top one, which is plenty for a twelve pound camera. Some situations might call for using both, but one will usually do.

Only in some situations do I find it necessary to secure the leg tilt locks: slippery surface, tripod at very low height, etc.

I stick a bunch of little squares of blue tape on the tripod legs. After I expose a sheet of film, I write, using a fine point Sharpie, identification and/or brief development notes that I attach to the dark slide.

With velcro straps, I attach two lengths of foam pipe insualtion to two of the legs. This makes it comfortable to shoulder the tripod for a good distance.

David Hall · Feb 9, 2003

These are great tips, guys, thanks!

Any advice on keeping the bottom of the camera from becoming scratched?

dgh

jmcd · Feb 9, 2003

If you just set the camera on the head and tighten the screw, any scratching would be minimal. You could always glue on a thin sheet of cork or rubber to the head to prevent any scratching. Better yet, just scratch the camera a bit deliberately and get out there and make photographs.

lee · Feb 9, 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (David Hall @ Feb 9 2003, 10:37 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>

Any advice on keeping the bottom of the camera from becoming scratched?

</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
Cameras are tools not religious objects. Take jmcd's advice and get out there and make images.

lee\c

jmcd · Feb 9, 2003

About the comment I made regarding deliberate scratching... My first camera was a used Canon F1. I carried it around in a protective leather case. A veteran photographer offered to check over the camera for me, to reassure me that I had a good tool to work with. While I was fumbling to unpack the camera, he told me that the important first thing was to get rid of the case. If it was in the case, the camera could not be used to make photographs. A rhetorical comment, perhaps, but he was literally serious.

David Hall · Feb 9, 2003

Whoa whoa...

Before you all go off on my thinking my camera is a religious object, just hold your horses. I have plenty of scratched cameras...starting with a Nikon F3 that I took to cover earthquakes in mexico, wars in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala, and to Poland after the fall of communism. It's my baby...and even though it is scratched and gunked and brassing quite nicely, I always did adjust the strap so as to minimize brassing by rubbing against other metal things.

And so it is with the 8x10 I now use. Of course it's going to get scratched. But if there's some way to minimize that, or prolong the inevitable, I'm interested.

Jeeze.

dgh

jmcd · Feb 9, 2003

"Jeez." David, you asked about basic tripod use and preventing scratches, and recommendations were made in good faith. I don't know you at all, and so passed on a story that is helpful to me, about getting out there and using the equipment that costs thousands of dollars. It can be intimidating to anyone. Let's face ityou are asking for some basic advice here. Somewhow, I mistook you for a mint-condition freak. My mistake.

David Hall · Feb 9, 2003

Oops. My Jeeze comment was somewhat tongue in cheek. "Somewhat" because it did seem that the thread was about to speed off into keeping immaculate equipment out of the field...and I'm with you, that isn't what it's for, no matter what it's value. On the other hand, I did want to make it clear that I'm not one those who buy the stuff and watch it sit there.

So I didn't mean to offend, and I really do appreciate all the tips. It's funny how one can use something as basic as a tripod for years and not have thought of the simplest things.

dgh

toldfield · Feb 19, 2007

I went to a shoe repair store, not that easy to find these days, and got a piece of leather which I used contact cement to attach to the head. It works great, cushions the base, and goes well with the wood... Total cost was $.75.

jp80874 · Feb 19, 2007

Another buffer between camera and tripod head can be purchased at grocery or hardware store. It is a circular flat piece of perforated rubber about an 1/8th of an inch thick and about 4 inches in diameter. Those stores mistakenly think it is to be used to open jar lids, but in fact it is a tripod-topper-holder-on-er. Besides acting as a buffer it helps keep the camera from twisting around on the head. These mislabeled devices are wisely packaged several to a bag, because they are easily left behind once the camera is taken off the tripod head.

John Powers

Vaughn · Feb 19, 2007

I have a Zone VI I mount on the same head/legs. I tilt the head almost 90 degrees to the ground and attach the closed camera in this position. To square it up, I drew a line on the bottom of the camera with a Sharpie that lines up with the an edge of the head. Pretty quick and easy to square up this way. A piece of tape might work if you don't want to draw on your camera.

There is very little weight on the head while lining up the scew and tightening it (less scratching) mounting the camera this way. And everything is right in front of you -- no bending down to look under the head. After tightening the screw, I move the head/camera to a flat position (parallel to the ground) and then open up the camera.

I take the camera off in the reverse order.

I have seen kits with piece of leather to glue to the top of the head -- to protect the bottom of one's camera.

Vaughn

Changeling1 · Feb 19, 2007

You need to march right back

toldfield said:
I went to a shoe repair store, not that easy to find these days, and got a piece of leather which I used contact cement to attach to the head. It works great, cushions the base, and goes well with the wood... Total cost was $.75.

to that poor cobbler's shop and pay him the $45.00 he would fetch if he pitched the same item on ePay! How can you sleep at night?

John Koehrer · Feb 19, 2007

See post #4 of this thread RElastic coffee can lid, will also minimize scratches.

bruce terry · Feb 20, 2007

I suppose glue-ons are a good idea for maximum 'hold' but I simply do what Vaughn does: tilt the head at least 45º away TO SEE, then snick the camera screw hole over the lightly-sprung head screw, then keep one hand on the camera while runniong-in the screw from the underside, then make super-sure the connection is REALLY tight with BOTH thumbs ... same for removal. I've accumulated dents over the years but no matter how much I try, I can't get the 8x10 to look as nasty as a well used 35mm.

Bruce

kenmeyersphoto · Feb 21, 2007

I have contact cemented a thin piece of cork to cover the ries head. Now it's no scratch and non-slip.

toldfield · Feb 22, 2007

The cobbler did have a $45 one but I went for the Penny Loafer style instead of the Classic Wingtip.

herb · Feb 26, 2007

Reis Tripod user

One thing that was not mentioned above is that one does not have to tighten the bejeezus out of the leg position knobs. A mild amount of tighten will keep the whole thing in place.

Michael Smith does not tighten his Reis legs hardly at all, especially it the spikes on the legs are into the ground.

Attention RIES tripod users

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