The June 8 meeting of COBA featured a hands-on demonstration of tripods. Many COBA members brought in their tripods, heads, and accessories to show to the group.
I’ve been using my Gitzo 1228, and I never knew how to remove the center column until Jeff demoed it right in front of me with his 1227. Guess I didn’t RTFM enough! Horst showed his Wimberley Sidekick, which is a scaled down version of the Wimberley head for very large lenses. He also had a Kirk Low Pod mount which makes shooting at ground level very easy.
Other things demoed at the event were tripods from Bogen/Manfrotto (Marie and Garrett), a focusing rail for macro photography (Dave), several mini-tripods (Karl and David), and the ever-popular Acratech Ultimate Ballhead. I’ve been using the Acratech for a few years now, and it’s a great ballhead that’s highly recommended! Dave also showed his L-bracket, something I really need to get for my camera!
Robert Burkhalter demoed an beta version of ImageViewer, an application that is designed to streamline the proofing process between clients and photographers. Check it out if you’ve struggled with this step — I know I have in the past!
Next month, we’re hoping to get HP to do a presentation on their large format printers. I used one of these last year at Stanford and they are pretty awesome. Any suggestions for additional topics for the July meeting?
Great pictures! You must have had a really high ISO to get such fast shutter speeds in a dim room.
Thanks for letting me demonstrate my Gitzo 2220 Explorer. When people asked the price, I said $180, but it turns out I actually paid $200. Current prices are around $250.