What tripod do you use and aren't many identical?

Eric Nepean wrote:

Jorginho wrote:

I guees my camera bag with the 100-400 and some other lenses will get me 2 Kg of extra weight. When I attach it too the hook that is beneaththe central column I guess that adds to stability when needed?

Actually not, in my opinion. I've tried it and not been impressed.

A tripod's biggest weakness is poor control of rotation about the vertical axis. Adding weight below the center column does nothing to change that. Because the weight is attached by a strap which twists easily, it does very little to change the rotational dynamics.

It will make it harder for the tripod to tip to one side, but that's not the tripods main weakness.

Adding a sling that attaches to all three legs might result in an improvment, as rotation around the center column causes the legs to flex slightly, and this will transfer energy to thee weight in the sling bag and may result in better damping.

I beg to differ on this. I’ve found loading the centre column with a camera bag makes a substantial improvement in damping in the ‘problem’ shutter speed range of  between 1/2 and 1/15 second (where resonance from the shutter can form a substantial part of the exposure time). Of course, electronic shutter helps virtually eliminate this too.

I’ve also found slinging a bag over the lens itself works remarkably well (but you need to have the lens mounted with tripod foot rather than the camera body mounted on the tripod, to avoid stressing the lens mount. You also need a very sturdy head to prevent the weight causing the camera / lens to ‘droop’ under the extra weight of the bag).

Just a brief point on the sturdiness of tripods. Whilst the weight of the kit placed on it is important in selecting the right legs and head, the main driver behind needing a sturdy tripod is generally focal length. Gitzo actually rates their tripods by the maximum focal length they are designed to work with, the heavier and sturdier tripods being rated for longer focal lengths.