Tripod recommendations needed for a Pentax 67

[John51]

Welp, all this discussion about the unique properties of the P67 as pertains to tripod stability has my curiosity finally piqued. So, tomorrow I'm gonna dust off my 67 and the only 300mm I have for it -- a late 300mm f/4 -- and gather up my small collection of tripods I've always considered to be stout ones, and go burn through a roll of film I'll be able to develop quickly. I think I have some Tri-X around here somewhere. Anyway, I reckon I'll be able to determine to my satisfaction just how much truth there is to the P67's remarkable vibration inducing capabilities at 300mm. And with a little bit of luck, I'll have some concrete results to report back here before this thread goes stale -- which I don't see happening anytime soon.

You could fix a laser pointer to the camera to see how much the dot moves during exposure.

 

[markbau]

Welp, all this discussion about the unique properties of the P67 as pertains to tripod stability has my curiosity finally piqued. So, tomorrow I'm gonna dust off my 67 and the only 300mm I have for it -- a late 300mm f/4 -- and gather up my small collection of tripods I've always considered to be stout ones, and go burn through a roll of film I'll be able to develop quickly. I think I have some Tri-X around here somewhere. Anyway, I reckon I'll be able to determine to my satisfaction just how much truth there is to the P67's remarkable vibration inducing capabilities at 300mm. And with a little bit of luck, I'll have some concrete results to report back here before this thread goes stale -- which I don't see happening anytime soon.

I'll be interested to read your results. Like I said in an earlier post, I have always got camera movement when using my 300 on a tripod. I have the older lens without the tripod mount.

 

[DREW WILEY]

The 300 P67 does not have any remarkable vibration properties. Flimsy unsuitable tripods and heads do. But that's all relative. I have undertaken very strict testing to discover differences in contrast filter resolution between the 300EDIF and the common 300 which is less corrected and potentially has a bit of color fringing on sharp edges, which slightly affects b&w sharpness too if the wrong choice of contrast filter is involved; the goal was how to optimize use of this quite decent but lesser lens, since it's quite worthy of black and white images, yet not so expensive nowadays that I'm going to be paranoid about replacing if something happens to it. This of necessity involves testing with very high resolution films and determining their suitable filter factors, and an appropriately very solid support, since a lesser support would negate objective results,
which is exactly why so many people come up with incorrect assessments of the optics! My goal is not to criticize anyone else's gear, but simply to communicate my own results and how I got there; I am not guessing whatsoever about any of this. It is what allows me to make exceptionally sharp prints form a relatively small camera with a heavy telephoto, but indeed heavier than most MF gear.

 

[craigclu]

Welp, all this discussion about the unique properties of the P67 as pertains to tripod stability has my curiosity finally piqued. So, tomorrow I'm gonna dust off my 67 and the only 300mm I have for it -- a late 300mm f/4 -- and gather up my small collection of tripods I've always considered to be stout ones, and go burn through a roll of film I'll be able to develop quickly. I think I have some Tri-X around here somewhere. Anyway, I reckon I'll be able to determine to my satisfaction just how much truth there is to the P67's remarkable vibration inducing capabilities at 300mm. And with a little bit of luck, I'll have some concrete results to report back here before this thread goes stale -- which I don't see happening anytime soon.

Be prepared for some surprises... I spent a lot of time/effort on this very thing (P67 control) many years back and things that appeared great on paper and spec would sometimes do poorly. One positive surprise was an offset ball head from Gitzo that I assumed had too many design flaws and angles to perform well but it was one of the best heads with the P67 for me. It was the bigger version (G1576M or its predecessor). I also found that the hard cork plates fared better than the rubber ones. It seemed like it was all about vibration and timing of the vibration. I suppose that was causing the unexpected results...?

 

[DREW WILEY]

There are numerous variables. Whatever works, works. But one thing I learned a long time ago, that if you want optimal results, you often need to think outside the box and improvise - or think outside of a camera store and in the shop instead !

 

[cooltouch]

Well, it took longer than I thought, mostly due to issues pertaining to my darkroom situation, but they're worked out now, and although this thread has cooled, I do have some results to offer up to the group. I shot a roll of T-Max 100, developed in D-76, then I shot duplicates of the negatives with my 24.3mp d*****l. I did a minimum of post processing of each shot, just enough to make the photos reasonably presentable.

About my 300mm lens, it's been a while since I've had it out of the bag and I had confused it with my 200mm, which is a late model. The 300mm I have is an earlier model, not sure exactly when it was made. It has a rubberized focusing collar, but the collar's nibs are more finely textured than those on my 200mm. It came with a bayonet-style metal Asahi Pentax front cap.

As for the photos, I shot a group from f/8 to f/16 on one tripod and f/8 to f/11 on the other before I ran out of film. At each aperture setting I took a shot with and without mirror lock up. At f/8 there was a moderate amount of background blur, but it was enough to give the photos a noticeable 3-D effect, which I quite like. I will restrict the photos I show here to the ones I shot at f/8.

The two tripods I used were a set of Bogen 3021 legs with a large, no-name ball head, and a Majestic Model H-120 with a top plate the measures 5-3/4" x 7". It has a crank that operates a very smooth tilt function.

Pentax 67, 300mm f/4 @ f/8, 1/30 second. T-Max 100 developed in D-76. Bogen 3021 legs, no-name ball head.

Ditto above, with MLU engaged.

Pentax 67, 300mm f/4 @ f/8, 1/30 second. T-Max 100 developed in D-76. Majestic H-120 tripod.

Ditto above, with MLU engaged.

Results: I found the images using both the Bogen and the Majestic to be quite acceptable. There was the smallest amount of blur with some twigs in some of the photos, but I can't be certain it wasn't the wind causing the blur, and it wasn't consistent. There was no appreciable difference between the shots with the Bogen and those with the much more massive Majestic.There was also little, if any, difference between shots where the mirror was locked up and where it was free to slap happily away.

The exposures could have been better. I used the Pentax's internal meter. I should have at least double-checked it with one of my hand-held meters.

I did a google search on my no-name ball head, hoping to find a brand name, but wasn't successful. However, in the process, I came across a listing for an economical tripod (with ball head) that I thought I'd mention here. It's a Vanguard Alta Pro 263AB 100. It is one of those hard-to-find models that has a pivoting center post, which can be very handy if one is after closeups of small flora and/or fauna. Supposedly, it will support up to 15.4 lb. Here's a link to it:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...rd_ALTA_PRO_263AB_100_Alta_Pro_263AB_100.html

 

[markbau]

Thanks for doing that and posting your results. It's interesting that you noticed little difference when using mirror lock up and not using it. Earlier this week I took a series of night shots with a 90mm. I realised that at one of the exposures (4 secs) I had forgotten to lock the mirror up so I retook with the mirror locked up. There is no difference at all between the two 4 second exposures, both are tack sharp.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Now the next test is to see how stable the camera and tripod are in a wind, emphasis on stable via-a-vis vibration and tipping over. I had a very light but flimsy tripod in high school and the first time I took it out for night photography the legs vibrated in the wind.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Hard to discern details over the web, but every one of those shots looks miserably unsharp to me. I'd like to be able to count the legs on a spider on one of those boards, at least where things are in focus. You don't get much depth of field with a 300. Or maybe you just have a scanning issue. Even the older 300's are capable of far better performance than that. But you're going to need much more serious tripod support to do it right.