tweets -

I would discourage getting the ball head or the pistol grip head for scope
use. The former is primarily for photography use and I have heard only bad
things about using them w/ scopes. I have used the latter (pistol grip) and
find them difficult and cumbersome to use - you basically have to pivot the
whole weight of your scope around w/ one hand - might work w/ a light scope
but otherwise forget it. I like the Bogen tripods and heads mentioned. I
also upgraded my tripod before I upgraded my scope and it made an
incredible difference even w/ my 20 year old Bushnell Spacemaster (which is
now 25 years old and I still use it from time to time!)

I'm a bit confused about the post on quick release. I have the quick
release and it uses plates and locks securely - I'm not sure what that post
is referring to (it has a pin which you move to the left to secure the
thumb plate from moving). This summer I purchased the Bogen window pod and
the Bogen Jr. tripod (w/ quick release) for scoping from my car. It is
lighter than heads mentioned previously and seems to work well on the car
window (the tripod handle is fixed on the left but I'm getting use to this
- shouldn't be a problem for folks who use scopes w/ focus wheel on the
right but I have a Nikon which is easist to focus w/ left hand).

Also agree w/ the post about carrying extra leg joints. But here is the
thing that I've found about them. The flip locks eventually loosen up even
though there is a plastic lock on the locking nut. But because of this it
is impossible to tighten the the nut! When I got my new flip locks I left
the "plastic lock" off the nut and bought a nut driver of the appropriate
size. So now I can just tighten the nuts whenever they need it (which is
too often unfortunately) but not worry about having to replace the locks.
Seems like there should be a better system (maybe the new tripod mentioned
below?)

I just saw that Bogen has a new tripod system (Tracker Tripods, P. 42 in
Jan. 2000 Audubon) out which looks interesting. If anyone has tried this I
would like to hear about it.

Thanks, Charles.
=========================
Charles E. Swift
Moscow, Idaho
charless at moscow.com
******************************************