My daughter has my Manfrotto 055 and my son has my old Bogen, as he is taking a photo classes in college. Prob not getting them back, LOL. Might get a fluid head since I've been shooting more video lately... hope there is a father's day sale on something nice.

ETA: The RRS stuff looks awesome but a bit much for my hobby needs. I'll prob get another 055x. I use Canon ff and Lumix u4/3 cams.

I use a benro tripod and really right stuff ball head. Tripod is really good and priced well when compared with its competitors. Not sure your price range though. I’ve never had an issue with manfrotto.

Been drooling at the RRS stuff... def hits all the checkmarks: made in USA, tough, sturdy, light, fast...

I'm using a Benro Adventure 2 carbon fiber with the flip locks instead of twist lock legs, and a Manfrotto XPro ball head on it.  Freaking love the combo, and when I have the $ it's cheap to convert the top of the Manfrotto to a RRS plate.

If you're doing more video, a fluid head will work great.  That said the Manfrotto 502 is one of the best inexpensive professional grade fluid heads out there.  That said, unless you have a tripod that is set up with a bowl leveller out of the box, you'll need to spend a few bucks on one too.  The XPro fluid head is pretty solid, but you get a lot more adjustment and reliability with the $30 more 502 head.

If it were up to me, I'd buy the tripod legs you want, a good fluid head, and leveling base.  Neewer makes a solid one, despite being inexpensive and Chinese.  It's a copy of a more expensive fluid base, but I don't know which.  The only reason I sent mine back is fluid heads/levels don't work well past 20f or so.





Although this is what I use.  I did snag the tripod on ebay for way under retail cost because of a water damaged box.  Everything was 100% though.

I used to use a vanguard tracker 2.

My wife bought me a Promaster specialist with a ball head.  It works very well.

It looks to be very near a copy to the Manfrotto befree with a 494 head.

Much lighter than the vanguard.

Do you know if the Promaster head will mount a RRS L-plate? Says it is arca-swiss compatible... looks like a nice tripod.

If it says it’s compatible it should take the RRS plate

I believe it will.  But I have never tried.

It is a very nice tripod.

I've got a Sirui tripod and have been extremely happy, check them out.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/Shop-by-Brand-Sirui/ci/4/phd/4167619192/N/4294255798

I went with a Sirui; seems well built, and was well rated. It does mount my RSS L-plate just fine. Will try it out next weekend. Thanks, all.

They compared favorably with the RRS tripods that were beside them when i bought one. The ball head in particular was absurdly good for the price. Way better than the crap Manfrotto was pushing.

If I ever go whole hog on a photo tripod upgrade, I'd probably buy the Jobu Algonquin with an RRS BH-55 head. This will do just fine for now, and about $300 all in. I'm saving up for a Canon IIL 70-200mm zoom lens, and a speed booster so I can also use it on my G9.