Tripod recommendations for Hasselblad 501CM

Pieter12

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From The Center for Column review of the Leofoto G4 Geared Head: "The G4 is nearly a direct copy of the Arca Swiss D4 geared head. This is indeed intellectual property violation at its most blatant. Leofoto has made some improvements on the overall design of the D4, but lacks the manufacturing precision of the Swiss company."
 

cowanw

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On the other hand the reviewer has not actually tested the Arca Swiss D4, so..
 

Ben Hutcherson

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About a year and a half ago I went shopping at the local camera store, and after buying and returning a couple(they were very patient with me…) I ended up with a carbon fiber Benro. Thom Hogan actually recommended this one very highly in his “budget” list a few years ago. It was $450, which isn’t cheap but is a third what a comparable Gitzo would cost. It’s sturdy, light, tall, and also gets fairly low(especially with the included short center column). My 6’2” self usually only extends 3 leg sectors to use a waist level finder, and sometimes that’s too tall with a motor body.

I’m still using the same Arca-Swiss B1 I’ve had for years. I actually bought a Z1 not too long ago, but it’s on my secondary tripod(a cheap CF Manfrottto) as I like the screw clamp on my B1 better than the Z1 lever lock.

The AS heads are the only ball heads I’ve seriously used, but as my only frame of reference I also don’t understand a lot of the complaints often made about ball heads. The AS heads are so easy to tension just right so that you can adjust easily with the camera not flopping around everywhere. Once you have it set, you can lock in place without anything moving. The whole ball and socket assembly sits on a very smooth pan base that locks separately from the ball. It works so well that I don’t see any real downside to the head.
 

cowanw

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Anonymous reviewer:
"While I haven’t tested the Arca Swiss D4, I suspect that this an area where the original will perform much better."
Reviewed by David
"There are a variety of d4 knockoffs available and while I have only tested one of them, it was no where near as good."
Two different reviewers; two different opinions
There seems room for ambiguity
 

Pieter12

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Maybe you should have included the complete quote: "For a geared head, the stiffness performance of the D4 is excellent. In my testing, it is only bested by that of the Arca Cube. There are a variety of d4 knockoffs available and while I have only tested one of them, it was no where near as good. The precision of the machining makes a big difference in geared heads, and that is where we see the d4 excels."
 

pdccamerqs

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HI New Yorker,

There have been some great recommendations here: Gitzo, Tiltall, Manfroto. I would suggest that which ever way you go for legs/head, you also should get some kind of quick release device.

Hasselblad made one for standard screw-type tripod heads:



And you can get a Arca-Swiss type one as well, if you have that kind of tripod head/adapter:



I use the Arca-Swiss type - works great!

Enjoy!

Paul
 

Ben Hutcherson

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pdccamerqs said:
I use the Arca-Swiss type - works great!
Click to expand...

I have one of the Arca-Swiss Hasselblad plates, and need to get more.

In general, if buying into a tripod system, I consider Arca-Swiss compatibility a must for myself. At this point, it's the closest thing out there to a defacto standard for quick release plates, and fitted plates are available for nearly any camera imaginable in any format.

I even keep the cheap Chinese AS-compatible plates on hand, and have modified many to custom fit a camera or lens.
 

Ai Print

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Are you removing the standard Hasselblad style foot that uses the Hassy QR plate and putting an Arca style plate in its place? Or are you just threading the Arca plate into the holes of the existing foot on the bottom of the camera body?

I ask because I have done the latter and it makes packing the kit awkward due to how much it sticks out and not as nice to hand hold. I also have four 501CM's, two Flexbodies and a 350mm Superachromat that all have standard Hasselblad QR feet so it gets a bit wonky.
 

Ben Hutcherson

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I know I'm not the person you asked, but the AS-brand Hassy plates I have fit nicely onto the original Hassy QR foot and then have nice countersunk/flush mounted Allen screws on the underside to secure them to the factory tripod screw.

The AS plate attached to the camera stands maybe 2mm proud of the bottom of the camera. It's not as low profile as having nothing but the factory QR foot, but it's pretty darn low profile.

This is one of the beauties of the AS dovetail(which actually isn't totally unlike how the Hassy factory system works). The attachment itself is low profile enough that it's really not an inconvenience to leave the plate on all the time.

Most of my cameras I actually use whether 35mm, digital, or MF have AS plates semi-permanently fixed to the bottom. In fact the only ones I don't think I have them on are my Leica M and my Pentax 67-the latter because none of the plates I've used have fit in a way I was happy with. I carry allen wrenches in all my bags to remove them if needed, but rarely do I need to.

As a side note(and I love the AS system if I haven't made it clear) there are even times where the AS plate can integrate so nicely that you don't even realize it's there. On my big 35mm format Nikon lenses(70-200 2.8, 300 2.8, the 200-500 5.6 when I still had it) I've replaced the factory tripod foot with a Really Right Stuff foot. They look for all intents and purposes like the factory foot-in fact I'd even ordered one for my 300 2.8 before realizing it already had one-but have the dovetail integrated into the foot so you literally just clamp it right into the tripod head. I have a grip for my Fuji XT-5, mine an aftermarket but basically a copy of the one Fuji sells for 3x what I paid, that integrates the dovetail into the bottom of the grip.
 

pdccamerqs

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As Ben mentioned, the AS plate slides onto the Hasselblad foot and is secured with either a 1/4-20 or 3/8-16 screw (both are provided).

It is really nice and compact. Here are some pics.

Best,

Paul



 

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JerseyDoug

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I have Arca-Swiss clamps on all of my tripods. It is the de-facto universal mount. For my Hasselblads I screwed an Arca-Swiss compatible universal camera plate to the bottom of a Hasselblad tripod quick coupling. No changes to the Hasselblads themselves and the tripods instantly switch between the Hasselblads and my other cameras.

 

Michael Mutmansky

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I replace the Hasselblad plate with an A-S plate. It saves a bit of space and the cameras sit on a table a bit more stably, so I figure it is a better approach than screwing one in on the bottom.

Here's the ones I have used:


I have had Hejnar make me a custom modified plate from my SWC/M body (which you can now see as a product for him, the 903 has a different screw hole arrangement), so Chris is great at doing simple mods if the plates he has doesn't fit the camera you have.

As for tripods, I used to own a cheap tripod (Bogen), and it worked well enough for 15 years or so, but it was pretty loose and constantly required adjustments after it got older. It worked well enough for basic 35mm shooting, but when I moved to large format, it was clearly not stable enough and I bit the bullet and got a Gitzo.

That was more than 20 years ago now and that Gitzo (1348/1349 model) has been so good; durable, solid, stable, etc. that I easily see it as a "forever" tripod for me... so much so that I decided to buy a used second one because eventually, I figure I'll destroy the original one on a cliff or something and they are pretty inexpensive when you find one used. Plus, far more stable than needed for basic medium format shooting (except when shooting ultra long lenses maybe, but that is a situation for a dual tripod setup).

My opinion is that a quality product is worth buying as long as you aren't a "product of the month" kind of person. Buy a quality tripod once and keep it for life.
 

Michael Mutmansky

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One thing to be cautious about is the rubber feet that are on the bottom of the 501xxx/503xxx bodies... If you do replace the Hasselblad plate with an A-S QR plate, you may risk the tripod head you have not fitting the camera because the rubber feet might interfere.

It doesn't on the heads that I have, but some heads are fatter and some might have a built-in bubble level or similar on the clamping mechanism and the rubber feet and the head/clamping mechanism could interfere.

Before going the route of replacing the Hasselblad plate, I'd look at that a little to make sure you have clearance.
 

Pieter12

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Not familiar with those particular bodies, but if the Arca Swiss and Acratech plates are thicker than the Hasselblad plate, I doubt there would be any clearance issues. On the contrary, the Hasselblad plate has a big lever on it and that might interfere with some heads.
 

Sirius Glass

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Gitzo, Tiltall, Manfroto and Arca-Swiss components can be used on the Induro tripods.
 

Tom Evans

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I was a long-time Gitzo user - but couldn't stomach their carbon fibre prices. Then, late in life, I discovered 3 Legged Thing. Carbon fibre, very well designed and put together, immensely sturdy and comparatively inexpensive. I now use their Pro Range 2.0 Winston 2.0 which will I think comfortably handle any medium format (or 5x4 for that matter) camera/lens combination.
 

MagicTheAxe

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Benro Mach3 TMA48CXL, massive height range and as solid as a rock. Mine held my jury rigged macro set up with ease as it also did my massive 300mm f2.8. The tripod is rated to a 20kg load but it feels like you could swing from it. WEX in the uk have a few left at a bargain price and the Benro ball heads are a sound investment to.
 

Pieter12

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I hope things have improved. I had a small 3 Legged Thing Erik tripod and was quite disappointed. It was spindly, the top pivot bolts needed to constantly be tightened and the ball head was a bit of a joke. I couldn't wait to get rid of it.
 
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