I have been researching tripods the last few days, really wanting a quality unit with a geared center column, and found all to be rather pricy. I got lucky today and found a Manfrotto MT057C3-G Carbon Fiber Tripod at EuroOptic.com for $650 US. Most places including eBay show them in the mid $800 range, so did pretty good there. My first tripod I bought in a USAF bx in Izmir Turkey back in 1972 was a rather lightly made, cheap unit, but has served me well. I used it mostly for photography, and with a cable release on my old Pentax Spotmatic made good pictures. I am using a larger spotting scope now and it just does not seem solid enough, It had a geared column and I just got to liking it for ease of elevation adjustment, so now with this one on order it looks like the wait is over. I am planning on either a Manfrotto 500 fluid head or a 405 geared head, possibly both. I will definetly like the geared head when out target shooting, other things i think the fluid head will work fine. I am using a stout dovetail slider that can screw to the quick change plates on the tripod and use my scope on different type tripods or sometimes a clamp on bench stand that i have.
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