Dear Jeff and Tweeters,
One word of advice on good tripods--get spare parts when you buy the thing. I shelled out big bucks for a top-of-the-line Manfrotto carbon-fiber tripod about seven years ago, and the company has already stopped selling spare parts for it. They tried to sell me a new tripod when I called to ask about purchasing some bushings and leg-joints. The bushings wear out in a year or two; the leg-joints have all cracked, since they are made of hard metal that does not give when put under stress. No spares available!
Reminds me of the time I went into a golf pro shop for some new grips to put on my irons. The punk kid behind the counter told me, "Nobody buys new grips--they just get a new set of clubs!"?
Anyway, I am seriously miffed with Manfrotto. I need maybe seventy bucks worth of parts, and they want me to spend ten times that on a brand-new tripod. I am so glad Honda doesn't do that--car ownership could get expensive in a hurry.
So, for now, I am using epoxy, scrap metal, and duct tape. The old tripod has just survived yet another international birding trip with the repairs I have made using ersatz materials--last week, I carried the scope and tripod while bouldering and scrambling through a karst jumble in Madagascar's Tsingy, without incident. Even so, having spare parts would have been preferable to having to spend all those hours tinkering at an anvil.
Yours truly,
Gary Bletsch

From: "jeffandsuekm at comcast.net" <jeffandsuekm at comcast.net>
To: tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Saturday, July 25, 2015 5:07 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Tripods

Just purchased a big prime lens that is way too much for my current tripod. ?Looking for suggestions on tripods and gimbal heads. ?Feel free to respond to my email. ?
Thanks,
Jeff Millsjeffandsuekm at comcast.net
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