Scope and camera tripod and head (1 Viewer)

[Canada-eh!]

Hi Everyone,

I do hope you can give me some advice.

I've just bought myself a Nikon Monarch 82ED-A scope based on all of the good advice I've seen here. Now its time to get a good tripod and head!

The scope will be used primarily for bird watching mainly over water, and I don't envisage having to carry this 10's of kms per day.

I was also thinking of using this tripod / head for photography too. I have a Canon 7D mkII and a Tamron 150-600mm G2 and I believe these add up to just under 3kg and I'm pretty happy to carry this all day. I have used my camera with a friends Manfrotto RT80C / Neewer Gimbal head and I enjoyed it a lot (with the camera).

Also, I bird with my sons so this will need to be good a multiple heights.

My questions are:-

Is a gimbal head suitable /a good idea for my scope?
Would the above tripod/scope work well for my needs?
Ami trying to combine too much (Camera and scope requirements)
Could anyone recommend a good tripod / head combination based on the above?
And probably a few more!

many thanks,

Carl

 

[PYRTLE]

Is your scope straight or angled? What is your budget? How tall are you?

You might be asking a bit much of one tripod kit doing two very different jobs though.

 

[Canada-eh!]

Is your scope straight or angled? What is your budget? How tall are you?

You might be asking a bit much of one tripod kit doing two very different jobs though.

Its an angled scope.

I'm 5'7 and my son is 5'10.

As with anyone, I don't want to overspend but to get the most from the scope I don't want to skimp too. I believe I can get the combination that my friend has for circa $300. this would be good but I'm happy to pay a bit more if its really worth it.

 

[jring]

Hi,

maybe you can try your friend's setup with your scope and let us know how it worked out? From the specs the Innorel (not Manfrotto) RT80C legs look ok (160cm w/o head is plenty, 22mm lower section diameter is good too, 3 sections would be better than 4), but not all CF tubes are created equal and a sloppy execution of the lugs and crown can also ruin the stability.

Magnification even with a 600mm supertele and including the 1.6x crop factor is only 19x (as compared to the normal 50mm)... and you only need it to be stable for quite short fractions of a second...

With a scope the magnification starts at 20x and goes up to 60x (or more with an extender) and you tend to observe for several seconds to minutes... this needs quite a bit more stability.

As for using a Gimbal with a scope, I remember a few members on here doing so. If you can balance your scope properly (with a long Arca-Swiss plate, if needed), I don't see why that shoudn't work.

PS: and if you tested it, we would of course love to hear about it...

Joachim

 

[Canada-eh!]

Hi,

maybe you can try your friend's setup with your scope and let us know how it worked out? From the specs the Innorel (not Manfrotto) RT80C legs look ok (160cm w/o head is plenty, 22mm lower section diameter is good too, 3 sections would be better than 4), but not all CF tubes are created equal and a sloppy execution of the lugs and crown can also ruin the stability.

Magnification even with a 600mm supertele and including the 1.6x crop factor is only 19x (as compared to the normal 50mm)... and you only need it to be stable for quite short fractions of a second...

With a scope the magnification starts at 20x and goes up to 60x (or more with an extender) and you tend to observe for several seconds to minutes... this needs quite a bit more stability.

As for using a Gimbal with a scope, I remember a few members on here doing so. If you can balance your scope properly (with a long Arca-Swiss plate, if needed), I don't see why that shoudn't work.

PS: and if you tested it, we would of course love to hear about it...

Joachim

thanks Joachim.

I will certainly try my friends set up. From what I read from your reply I guess there should be nothing wrong with his camera set up.

I'm relatively new to scopes and wanted tonsure that I don't make any costly mistakes. I'll try and do the recommended star test nd see how the goes.

Carl

 

[jring]

Hi Carl,

that guy called OpenandShutterCase in the thread below is not per chance your friend?
"I'm interested in your opinion regarding the 80c. Did you get the leveling base? I might get it for my gimbal and birding shoots."

Innorel RT85C Carbon Fiber Tripod: Accessories Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review

Expert news, reviews and videos of the latest digital cameras, lenses, accessories, and phones. Get answers to your questions in our photography forums.

www.dpreview.com

If yes, the internet does not forget ;-)

Joachim

 

[Canada-eh!]

Hi Carl,

that guy called OpenandShutterCase in the thread below is not per chance your friend?
"I'm interested in your opinion regarding the 80c. Did you get the leveling base? I might get it for my gimbal and birding shoots."

Innorel RT85C Carbon Fiber Tripod: Accessories Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review

Expert news, reviews and videos of the latest digital cameras, lenses, accessories, and phones. Get answers to your questions in our photography forums.

www.dpreview.com

If yes, the internet does not forget ;-)

Joachim

Hi Joachim,

I'm pretty sure thats not my friend (he's in Montreal, Canada).

Now I just need to work out how I'm going to use his tripod COVID times

Carl

 

[Canada-eh!]

Hi Joachim,

I'm pretty sure thats not my friend (he's in Montreal, Canada).

Now I just need to work out how I'm going to use his tripod COVID times

Carl

I've been thinking a bit more about this (probably too much) and I will certainly try my friends camera setup.

What worries me somewhat is the gimbal head stability, as well as the possibility of the scope being bashed because someone doesn't tighten the knob that prevents movement in the horizontal axis.

If I didn't have the constraints of wanting it for photography too, does any one have an opinion on what would be the recommended tripod / head for this scope? Keeping below the $3-400 would be ideal.

 

[jring]

Hi,

my personal go-to head for a full size scope is the Manfrotto 500AH fluid head. It does most things right, the only little issue is that it uses proprietary plates (but replacements from either Manfrotto or chinese cloners are readily available).

With a fluid head, you can set the friction quite finely, so the scope can be panned and tilted with a certain amount of force...

As for legs, if the model that your friend has is stable enough, no reason not to use them. I got a set of used Velbon CF legs from ebay which have served me as well as they did their original owner. A similar current model would be the Geo N535.

PS: As for meeting your friend safely in these times, outside and wearing masks should be safe enough... the only concern might be temps... might be a bit chilly...

Joachim

 

[Canada-eh!]

Hi,

my personal go-to head for a full size scope is the Manfrotto 500AH fluid head. It does most things right, the only little issue is that it uses proprietary plates (but replacements from either Manfrotto or chinese cloners are readily available).

With a fluid head, you can set the friction quite finely, so the scope can be panned and tilted with a certain amount of force...

As for legs, if the model that your friend has is stable enough, no reason not to use them. I got a set of used Velbon CF legs from ebay which have served me as well as they did their original owner. A similar current model would be the Geo N535.

PS: As for meeting your friend safely in these times, outside and wearing masks should be safe enough... the only concern might be temps... might be a bit chilly...

Joachim

Thanks again Joachim.

The more I'm reading about this, the more I think I should focus on 'scope mount first, camera mount second'. If I can get them to be universal then thats a bonus.

Your recommendation above sounds like a good plan. For the scope I've purchased, do you know what kind of plate I will need to connect the 500AH head to the scope?

Carl

 

[PYRTLE]

Thanks again Joachim.

The more I'm reading about this, the more I think I should focus on 'scope mount first, camera mount second'. If I can get them to be universal then thats a bonus.

Your recommendation above sounds like a good plan. For the scope I've purchased, do you know what kind of plate I will need to connect the 500AH head to the scope?

Carl

I agree that the scope set up should take priority. I also use the 500 AH fluid head but on Swarovski carbon fibre legs.....has been perfect so far.

 

[jring]

Hi,

the 500AH comes with one long plate which will fit your scope. If you want to mount other stuff like your camera on the fluid head too w/o having to unscrew the plate from the scope, you can get more plates as needed.

Joachim

 

[Canada-eh!]

I agree that the scope set up should take priority. I also use the 500 AH fluid head but on Swarovski carbon fibre legs.....has been perfect so far.

Perfect. Thanks Pat.

 

[Canada-eh!]

Hi,

the 500AH comes with one long plate which will fit your scope. If you want to mount other stuff like your camera on the fluid head too w/o having to unscrew the plate from the scope, you can get more plates as needed.

Joachim

This is great. I think I have a way forward.

cheers,

Carl

 

[Canada-eh!]

This is great. I think I have a way forward.

cheers,

Carl

The head is now about to be ordered!

I've been looking around (DPReview) and have found a few concerns with the Innorel RT80C / ST324CF tripod. With a super telephoto lens they seem not optimum. My guess is this won't translate well for my scope (82mm) too.

There seems to be a lot of good reviews though on its bigger brother the RT90C, but this is about $400 Cdn and 2.86kg.

Are there any thoughts on the suitability of this (what looks like a stronger tripod) and whether there's any others I should be looking at in this price range?

thanks,

Carl

 

[nodd]

The head is now about to be ordered!

I've been looking around (DPReview) and have found a few concerns with the Innorel RT80C / ST324CF tripod. With a super telephoto lens they seem not optimum. My guess is this won't translate well for my scope (82mm) too.

There seems to be a lot of good reviews though on its bigger brother the RT90C, but this is about $400 Cdn and 2.86kg.

Are there any thoughts on the suitability of this (what looks like a stronger tripod) and whether there's any others I should be looking at in this price range?

thanks,

Carl

Hi I also use the Manfrotto 500AH which I find to be great. I have it mounted on a Manfrotto MT055CXPRO3 carbon fibre tripod. I did this combination works really well with my Leica Televid 77 with a 20-60x eyepiece.

​

 

[BrinzaDominator]

I used to use the Nikon Monarch 82ED I used it for 8 months, but it seemed to me that its approximation is weak for this company and I decided to look for a new one and compare it. I found the top 3 All Outdoors and bought it from ALPEN OPTICS. I conducted an experiment that is more convenient, more practical, and most importantly more accurate, most of all I liked the second option, but Nikon was also not bad. I realized that the difference between them is small and I decided to sell my old Nikon. because I already bought myself a new one. So if you love hunting and animal watching you can safely buy any of these samples. Checked by me personally and you will definitely like them

 

[Canada-eh!]

Hi I also use the Manfrotto 500AH which I find to be great. I have it mounted on a Manfrotto MT055CXPRO3 carbon fibre tripod. I did this combination works really well with my Leica Televid 77 with a 20-60x eyepiece.

​

thanks Neil. This one id a bit more pricey but I'm trying to find one used.