Yes, interesting to see if others have same issue, or it's just something peculiar to the set up they had in the shop I went to. I wonder if (as others have said) it's exacerbated by the small surface area of the foot.
Sure, that plays a role. However, most old scopes like the Kowa TS series, the Herte & Reuss or the Optolyth 30x75 had such small feet. And yet people used them all over the place without any major problems.
This is the foot - I'm not sure what makes contact with the tripod plate - whether all (if precisely flush), or the silver or the black area, or just the small outer green area - depending which is most proud. I guess resistance to torque also dependent on how deep the screw recess is (or is this a fixed industry standard?)
Peak also make a plate that is both Arca Swiss and Manfrotto PL-200 compatible for those who prefer the Manfrotto system.
You can go for a much lighter tripod, a Gitzo travel tripod should work well enough with the ATC. The optical performance is very similar to the ATS65. You might lose a few minutes of last light but that doesn't weigh up to the compactness of the ATC in my opinion. It's much easier to pack in your backpack for day trips etc. If you don't see the use for it, you probably don't need it. I would never buy something I would need to find a use for.
I fully agree with you
I would not get too hung up on grams. To me, it's more about volume. The ATC is incredibly compact and seems to be very well built. This means you can just drop it in your day pack without too much added protection. This, in itself, is more valuable than mere grams.
www.birdforum.net
That sounds awful. I hope you'll make a recovery soon!
Well, if you want to stick to Swarovski and want to keep the weight down, you've got only one choice, the ATC. The only significantly lighter scope is the Nikon ED50, and that has it's own set of problems (limited availability of eyepieces, no wideangle zoom, somewhat fragile).
Do these weights include a decent video head? My lightweight setup (Gitzo 1545T+Gitzo 2180) is 1608 gr. including a decent strap.
Whether it's worth it is something only you can decide. I normally take the Gitzo in combination with the ED50 when I want to keep the weight down, that combination weighs ~2200 gr., depending on the eyepiece on the ED50. That's about 700 gr. less than the same tripod with the Nikon EDIIIA. I personally find that difference quite significant when I'm hiking longer distances. On really strenuous trips I replace the Gitzo tripod with a decent monopod. Not a combination I'd use in a howling gale in North Norfolk. However, that combination is about 700 gr. lighter than my setup with the Gitzo 1545T.
I think the Kowa numbers (or at least the 88, which I've also been looking at recently), are for the scope body alone, and the eyepieces are pretty heavy (close to 400g), so the Kowa 88 will be just over twice the weight of the ATC (which is still very good for a scope of that size and reported performance).
