Tripod head for 4x5 field cam- Recommendations please

Indeed I did. And yes, LF cameras are not the fastest way to work. But if you’re
slow- or your equipment is-you can lose shots, especially under volatile light conditions. From my previous life as a large format photographer, I learned that leveling is one of the potential biggest time sinks. Even with the LF camera, sometimes that extra minute can cause you the shot. After I saw the video linked below, I realized that a leveling base can be a big time saver and the slight weight tradeoff is worth it.

I used to have the Zone VI wooden tripod. Every leveling operation was three leveling operations, repeat go around again maybe repeat as needed, as many times as it takes.I am ditching my Bogan 3047 head which weighs nearly 4 pounds and replacing it with two pieces of gear that combined probably weigh half that. It will still be a light setup. While your points about complexity are valid, I’m going to try it with and without the leveling base. If I don’t like it, eBay here I come.

Here’s a link to a video I discovered, which has the best explanation of how to pick a tripod that I have ever seen. It explains a lot of stuff that didn’t exist in my first life as a large format photographer. The relevant part starts at exactly 15:00 in.

Grafmatic said:

Indeed I did. And yes, LF cameras are not the fastest way to work. But if you’re
slow- or your equipment is-you can lose shots, especially under volatile light conditions. From my previous life as a large format photographer, I learned that leveling is one of the potential biggest time sinks. Even with the LF camera, sometimes that extra minute can cause you the shot. After I saw the video linked below, I realized that a leveling base can be a big time saver and the slight weight tradeoff is worth it.

I used to have the Zone VI wooden tripod. Every leveling operation was three leveling operations, repeat go around again maybe repeat as needed, as many times as it takes.I am ditching my Bogan 3047 head which weighs nearly 4 pounds and replacing it with two pieces of gear that combined probably weigh half that. It will still be a light setup. While your points about complexity are valid, I’m going to try it with and without the leveling base. If I don’t like it, eBay here I come.

Here’s a link to a video I discovered, which has the best explanation of how to pick a tripod that I have ever seen. It explains a lot of stuff that didn’t exist in my first life as a large format photographer. The relevant part starts at exactly 15:00 in.

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I started photography before the internet & spent more than a decade w 5x7" & 8x10".... sorry, i lost interest in even viewing the video when i saw "flat bed scanning"

GregY said:

I started photography before the internet & spent more than a decade w 5x7" & 8x10".... sorry, i lost interest in even viewing the video when i saw "flat bed scanning"

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The tripod tutorial was the good part.
I’m interested in the topic because I want the best digital copies of film that I can get. I can’t have a ‘real’ dark room where I am these days. There are times I wonder what it would be like to use an 8 x 10 and adhere to strictly contact printing. No enlarger, just a contact frame and a few trays. That might work, but I’m not sure I’m up to carrying an 8 x 10 except adhering to the Brett Weston rule he adopted in his later years:”Iif it’s more than 100 yards from the road, it’s not photogenic.”

I started 51 years ago when I was 18. Seeing a print come up in the tray under a safelight, process wise, is a whole Nother level of experience compared to watching a print roll out of a digital printer. Right now, I have to have a hybrid workflow. Hopefully I’ll get back in a darkroom some pretty soon.

Grafmatic said:

The tripod tutorial was the good part

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G, I'm still happy with my Gitzo & Ries...... tutorial times have long passed.....

Grafmatic said:

From my previous life as a large format photographer, I learned that leveling is one of the potential biggest time sinks.

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Yes, and for me, it's not even primarily the time; it's the annoyance. Leveling a tripod using its legs is just tedious. Especially if you have to do it two or three times as you work small adjustments to a composition on uneven ground. It takes some of the fun out of taking pictures; I'm too old to put up with that.

A leveling base + 2-way head dramatically reduces all that messing around -- i.e. I find it to be a big simplifier, not a complicator. That setup has been the standard in the filmmaking industry for decades; they have literally hours to set up their shots, but nearly all of them use a leveling base (usually via a bowl-style spider) and a 2-way pan-tilt (plus fluid) head.

All that said, I haven't settled on the leveling base + 2-way head. When using it, I missed some of the flexibility of a ball head. So for now, I'm back to a ball head with the Arca-Swiss P0, which solves some of the shortcoming of traditional ball heads.

If I go back to the leveling base + 2-way head setup, I'll look for a system that allows me to see whether the base is level even with the camera mounted, and also does not require me to be looking straight down on the top of the leveling base to see the bubble level. Most leveling bases use a bullseye bubble level that you must look down on from above -- a problem if you are setting up the tripod for a high angle shot.

Never did much care for ball heads under my Intrepid 4x5 (though I use them almost exclusively for smaller cameras).

For a while I was using a cheap no-name branded 2-way pan head with a handle that extended out from under the base of the camera. That was a major improvement over the ball head.

Eventually I got the Benro geared head. I've been using it for several years now for all my 4x5 work, and have been very happy with it. The precision with which you can make very small framing adjustments is great, and I find for the lightweight Intrepid, it's very much solid enough for my preferences.

Before I got the Gitzo 3-way head ‘Im using, my plan was to get a Manfrotto 438 leveling base and a pan-only head. I would use this setup only for large format, and my shooting style doesn’t benefit much from tilting.

Still I couldn’t find pan-only heads that can support over 10kg, and I don’t trust these Chinese stuff on evilBay that claim to support 15kg.

Any good recommendations?