lf-photo.org.uk

ok the manfrotto 410 is on its way (the joys of gutting flat and selling bricabrac!)

and now im looking forward a bit to getting hold of a berlebach 3032 in nutwood brown. it will be carrying a shen hao tz45 IIa with a 180mm lens. good combination?

anyone on here use berlebach? i had looked at ries but theyre well out of my budget, and i really dont like the look of the metal/carbon fibre tripods regardless of how good they may be. it just doesnt fit with my image of the system i want (which is designed to be used while wearing tan coloured shoes and a suit with blood red shirt - im not joking - im basing my 'brand' around it) and anyhow i heard wooden in extremely effective.

and for those who saw my new to the site intro. i cannot believe the magnetism this camera has. i got stopped to talk 6!!!! times in about half an hour yesterday. no one believes its new, they think its super vintage, and mostly people have never even seen one, and cant get their head around it. but generally when people look and i tell them theres no electronics involved, they smile, i think people appreciate something that sits outside the common, automatic, electronic lifestyles we all lead these days.

frederick

anyone on here use berlebach?

Hello from France !

I'm routinely using a lightweight Berlebach Nr. 8013, 3 sections, plain head without central column. It's weight is 2.2 kg and checking the official specs it is rated by the manufacturer for 10 kg (22 lbs). If you look at aluminum tripods rated for 10 kg-22 lbs you'll find that they are substantially heavier, in the 3-3.5 kg (7-8 lbs) range. In order to get a similar weigth and similar (or better) load capacity, you have to go fo a carbon fibre tripod. usually they ar more expensive than the Berlebachs.

A cheap improvement I made to my Nr. 8013 is simply to add rubber caps to the bottom of the legs, I simply found them at a hardware store, rubber "feet" @1 euro each used for metal chairs.

In combination with a good ballhead I found the 8013 perfect for outdors and backpacing with a compact 4x5 camera (I have the Arca Swiss F-field).
See a picture here with the Arca Swiss 6x9
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4063/507 ... 91c9_b.jpg
Sure, even rated for 10 kg, I would probably look for a bigger tripod for extensive use of my 4x5 with, say, a 800 mm apo-ronar lens !

For landscape use, I have never missed the central column, (model Nr. 8023 for example).

This Berlebach tripod being not very expensive I do not hesitate to carry it everywhere and I'm free in mind in case something would happen to it. The fact that the legs slides are totally open to dust allows sand to go off as quickly as it would go in. Really easy to clean. And it would be really cheap and easy to replace an element of the leg if damaged or broken.
For example, leg locks use a very common M6x100 screw, very easy to replace, as common in Europe as the photographic standard 1/4"-20tpi in some other non-metric parts of the world

Suit and blood red shirt?? Ha!! The only way to go is burgundy velvet smoking jacket and fez.

i hear that:)

i beleiev a friend is looking for an old pocket watch for my birthday:)

But on a more serious note. I did some research on these tripods and concluded that for weight, and load bearing capacity they looked really good value. The only question mark in my mind was the ball and socket mounting head. I have always found ball heads a bit of a fiddle to level successfully. Also, would mounting another head on a movable base possibly compromise stability? On balance my personal choice would be the 3002 with the plain head.

Hello from France !

Postby Adrian Twiss » Sat Feb 05, 2011 8:25 am eP ......The only question mark in my mind was the ball and socket mounting head. I have always found ball heads a bit of a fiddle to level successfully. Also, would mounting another head on a movable base possibly compromise stability? On balance my personal choice would be the 3002 with the plain head.

I attended the last 2010 Photokina in Cologne and I could see and touch most Berlebach products on display at their booth.

Actually in the whole Berlebach catalogue, there are two series of built-in ballheads:

- the "small" one in the Report series http://www.berlebach.de/bilder/produktb ... mittel.jpg

- and the HUGE one, in the UNI series, diametre = 100 mm. http://www.berlebach.de/bilder/produktb ... mittel.jpg

As you can see, both spheres have their centre located where the 3 legs of the tripod intersect, and only half of the sphere protrudes above this point. So when the sphere is properly tightened, it is almost like if you had a regular tripod with a solid metal block of a few centimetres above the point of interscetion of the 3 legs. So my feeling is that you can safely attach any additional tripod head above the sphere without degrading the stability of the whole assembly, and this is probably an interesting option.

- for a view camera where you almost always level the camera and use shifts to properly frame (at least, this is how I use the view camera for the kind of landscape + architecture images I take), you will probably never need more angle of tilt than provided by the built-in Berlebach sphere (about 30 degrees).

- for any other camera where you would demand a maximum of flexibility, you can attach on top of the sphere your favourite 2-way head, 3-way head, ballhead, geared head, whichever...

For example with a view camera, the built-in ballhead serves as a pre-levelling device, you unfold your tripod without any care, even if the ground is uneven, and set the ballhed so thar the upper platform is horizontal. This is also a perfect starting point for panoramic strtching with any camera.

As indicated above, I own a 8013 model, the "plainest" model, no centre post, no buil-in ballhead, I bought it second-hand from a friend but if I had to buy a new Berlabach tripod for a view camera, i would probably hesitate between a plain model and one of the models with the built-il ballhead.

The 8013 is OK or a light weight 5x4 camera ; for a 10x18 I would probably have a look at the UNI series, which is definitely heaviest and much more expensive...

In French we would say la rotule incorporée, ça ne mange pas de pain.. meaning that the built-in ballhead cannot be detrimental to any combination of heads you would add on top. And if eventually you go for a Berlebach without built-in ball head, you could even add one as a separate accessory, e.g. the huge one .